"We just work well together," Denny said. "I knonw he's going to finish if I get him the ball, and he knows I'm going to finish if he gets me the ball."
They worked together well enough to down the plucky Patriots (1-7), who played to within a 2-1 halftime score. Denny scored both of his goals in the first half, and Horn assisted on both. Lincoln tied the game shortly before halftime on a goal by Chris Smith.
Garrard coach Jon Martin was not pleased with what he saw from his team, and he let the players hear about it at halftime.
"I pointed out that in warmups, they were goofing off and taking Lincoln County lightly," Martin said. "When you get complacent, you play like that. Lincoln played extremely hard, they were physical, and they wanted to win the game. We were out of it."
They got back in it pretty quickly. Denny scored his third goal, giving him a hat trick, just five minutes, 50 seconds into the second half for a 3-1 lead. With just under 22 minutes to play, Horn fired a shot at Lincoln goalkeeper Christian Davidson, but it was deflected. Justin Christian followed the shot and put it in the back of the net.
Horn scored his two goals within 5:16 of each other, in the 63rd and 68th minutes. Pat Kluesener put in the final goal of the game with just over four minutes to play.
Kluesener and Brad Browning each had assists in the second half.
"They're a good team"
"They're a good team," Lincoln coach Erin Shearer said of Garrard. "I'm not going to fault Garrard County's offense. But our defense ... gosh. We work on it, but they still want to jab at the ball. We have several new players, but it's just disappointing when you know they can play better."
Garrard held a 32-5 shot advantage and took eight corner kicks to Lincoln's zero. Davidson had 14 saves in goal for Lincoln, while Lions keeper Corey Lawwill had three saves.
Garrard had its way in the second half, limiting Lincoln to just two shots after the break. The Patriots struggled to get any kind of offensive attack going after halftime.
"They were satisfied with how they played in the first half," Shearer said. "True, it was the best half I've seen them play as a team, and I was pleased with the way they played. But they thought they could just go out there and let it down instead of giving it more."
Martin was less-than-pleased with his team's play overall. Even in the second half, he said the team had "spurts" in which it played well, but the Lions didn't play to their strengths.
"We use a lot of speed and play the ball through a lot," Martin said. "We have a lot of good communication and passing in our midfield, though you couldn't tell that tonight."
