"The last two years their kids have played in the state semifinals, and our kids are not as experienced as their guys are," Stonebraker said. "They got a lead, and we've just got a lot of kids who hadn't had to react in a big-game situation like this."
Garrard (2-2, 1-1 Class AAA, District 5) came into the game with momentum generated by back-to-back wins, but Somerset (2-2, 2-0) took that away by scoring on its first four offensive series and on a Garrard punt.
The Golden Lions fell behind 23-0 early in the second quarter, and that was too great a deficit against a Somerset offense that could seemingly score at will.
"Field position hurt us pretty bad early in the game," Stonebraker said.
Big plays for Somerset
The Lions were stopped in their own territory on three of their first four possessions, but Somerset proved as the night went on that it could score from anywhere on the field. Six of the Jumpers' nine touchdowns were on plays of at least 29 yards, and three of them covered more than 60 yards.
"If you don't tackle well and you don't cover the vertical routes very well, they're going to get a lot of points," Stonebraker said.
It was the most points allowed by Garrard since giving up 73 in a 2000 loss to Boyle County.
Quarterback Chase Hall threw four touchdown passes for Somerset, which has won 16 straight district games. He was 13-for-19 for 296 yards.
"He got some pressure tonight and made some big-time throws," Somerset coach Jay Cobb said.
Running back Kenny Hughes caught two touchdown passes, ran for two scores and racked up 202 all-purpose yards, and wide receiver John Cole had one touchdown catch and returned a punt for a score.
Both teams got roughly two-thirds of their offensive yardage through the air, but Garrard had hoped to run the ball much more.
"We tried to run at them a little bit, tried to run some clock and grind it out and be physical. But they gave us some stunts that gave us some trouble," Stonebraker said.
Cobb said stopping the run was priority one for his defense.
Last chances
"We did a good job versus the run," he said. "We really tried to take (tailback Jamarious) Merritt away, and we were able to do that and they became a little bit one-dimensional."
Merritt ran 13 times for only 35 yards, and Fred Hayes led the Garrard ground game with 48 yards on eight carries.
Quarterback Stephen DeBord was 9-for-19 for 221 yards, and he threw second-quarter touchdown passes of 51 yards to Jordan Phillips and 79 yards to Hayes to cut the Lions' deficit to 30-14.
They had two more chances before halftime to get a score that would have reduced the margin to single digits, but those were their last chances. Hughes scored on the first play of the second half and twice more in the first 5:44 of the third quarter to widen Somerset's lead to 51-14.
Garrard got just one more score on a 15-yard run by Chris Pearce late in the same period.
Both Cobb and Stonebraker said there's a good chance their teams will meet again in the district playoffs.
"Hopefully we'll be a lot better team by then," Stonebraker said. "We've got to learn from the mistakes we made tonight and get ready for Taylor County (this Friday), because now that becomes our biggest game of the year because we need to beat them to have a chance for a home (playoff) game."
Statistics
At Somerset
First Quarter
Somerset - FG Will Wilson 37, 5:25.
Somerset - Chase Hall 1 run (Wilson kick), 1:52.
Second Quarter
Somerset - John Cole 62 pass from Hall (Wilson kick), 9:57.
Somerset - Cole 68 punt return (kick failed), 8:24.
Garrard - Jordan Phillips 51 pass from Stephen DeBord (Dylan Robinson kick), 7:55.
Somerset - Kenny Hughes 29 pass from Hall (Wilson kick), 5:52.
Garrard - Fred Hayes 79 pass from DeBord (Robinson kick), 5:35.
Third Quarter
Somerset - Hughes 81 run (Wilson kick), 11:44.
Somerset - Hughes 37 pass from Hall (Robinson kick), 8:46.
Somerset - Hughes 7 run (Robinson kick), 6:16.
Garrard - Chris Pearce 15 run (kick failed), 1:53.
Somerset - John Coomer 35 pass from Hall (Wilson kick), :41.
Fourth Quarter
Somerset - J.P. Henderlight 5 pass from Scott Spears (Felipe Ortiz kick), 5:28.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING- Garrard, Fred Hayes 8-48, Jamarious Merritt 13-35, Jansen Penman 6-16, Chris Pearce 1-15, Dustin Smallwood 6-15, team 1-minus 5, Stephen DeBord 6-minus 6. Somerset, Kenny Hughes 12-136, Derrick Jackson 2-20, Scott Spears 1-13, Chase Hall 2-minus 1, Josh Troxtel 3-minus 7.
PASSING- Garrard, DeBord 9-19-1-221. Somerset, Hall 13-19-1-296, Spears 1-2-0-5.
RECEIVING- Garrard, Jordan Phillips 3-61, Hayes 2-85, Parker Anderson 2-48, Tyler Ray 1-27, Merritt 1-0. Somerset, John Cole 5-123, John Coomer 5-82, Hughes 2-66, Hunter Nelson 1-25, J.P. Henderlight 1-5.
Garrard01460-- 20Somerset1020287-- 65GCHSSFirst Downs1416Rushes41-11820-161Passing221301Total Yards339457Comp-Att-Int9-19-114-21-1Fumbles - Lost4-20-0Penalties12-986-65
