Logan County hit the road Friday night and ran its record to 3-0 by running away with a sloppy 35-17 victory over Warren East.

The two teams combined for five turnovers, and nearly had three more between them to go with dozens of penalties against both teams. On one particular drive in the third quarter, Logan County committed five penalties – four of which were consecutive false starts.

“The fourth quarter kind of got out of control with penalties and mouthing (off) and there was some adversity that we got to learn to get through and get better on for sure,” Logan County coach Todd Adler said. “I tell my guys we got to adapt to the way that officials are calling the game, you know, different officials call different things and we have to learn to adapt to that.”

Logan County junior wide receiver Anthony Woodard emerged as a major playmaker for the night, leaving his fingerprints all over the box score. Woodard caught six passes for 120 yards and two touchdowns, returned a 62-yard punt for a touchdown and recorded an interception.

“If you put the ball in there he’s going to get it and he’s got speed, he’s got moves on (the) outside,” Adler said of Woodard. “So you know, the more that we can get that kid the ball, the better off we’ll be but we have to continue to jell as a total offense and continue to get better.”

The two teams entered the matchup coming off games that yielded very different outcomes. Logan County blasted Muhlenberg County 59-0 in its second game, and Warren East fell in a totally one-sided affair against South Warren by a final score of 50-6 in Week 2.

The Cougars senior quarterback Tyler Ezell overcame some early fumbling problems and two interceptions to have a productive night. He completed 13-of-24 passes for 265 yards and three touchdowns.

Despite outgaining the Raiders by 109 yards in the first half (253-to-144), Logan County could not establish any kind of offense early, failing to score in the first quarter and losing one of four fumbles.

“We played really, really sloppy the first quarter,” Adler said. “I thought we cleaned some of that up in the second quarter. We settled into what we like to do.”

On the first series of the game, Warren East fell on a fumbled snap in Logan County territory and turned it into a 28-yard field goal to go up 3-0 early.

After that, the Raiders hurt themselves the rest of the way, failing to capitalize on several instances of favorable field position and racking up more than a dozen penalties before halftime.

And even when Ezell made his own mistakes, Warren East couldn’t get out of its own way. With less than two minutes left in the half, E.J. Smith intercepted Ezell but could not reap the benefits of a long return to the Cougars’ 30-yard line. A holding penalty backed the Raiders up all the way to their own 36.

Warren East quarterback Nolan Ford led the Raiders down the field anyway, and K.J. Alexander capped off the drive with a touchdown run from four yards out to make the score 14-10 with 18 seconds left in the half.

But that wasn’t the end of the first-half scoring. Warren East committed another costly penalty on the ensuing possession, this time an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the defense that allowed Ezell to launch a 48-yard deep ball to Woodard all the way to the 3-yard line with one second remaining. Woodard got it right back on the next play and scored to steal a possession and put the Cougars up 20-10 going into halftime.

Logan County made its money on big plays in odd circumstances en route to scoring its first two touchdowns of the night.

“I mean, what team is not a momentum play team,” Adler said of his team’s explosive plays. “But you know we use them big plays to motivate us and go. We like to get our run game going to establish our passing game and we had to do the opposite of that tonight. That was something that we haven’t faced before, but that’s something going on the road the first time and playing a pretty good team.”

Just three minutes into the second quarter, Ezell rolled out far to his left on third down near his own 19-yard line and threw back across the field and his body to an open Woodard for a huge 33-yard gain. Ezell flicked an 8-yard pass to Maurice Gordon who took it into the end zone six plays later.

Four minutes later, Ezell found a streaking Jarrett Sears for a 52-yard score.

The momentum would stay with the Cougars to start the second half, with Warren East’s Damontra Pillow coughing the ball up on the Logan County 10-yard line to bring a promising drive to a halt.

The Cougars couldn’t capitalize this time, as they committed four consecutive penalties that took them from the Warren East 28-yard line all the way back across midfield to set up a first-and-37 from their own 45. Ezell helped the Cougars gain most of the lost yards back before Pillow redeemed his mistake by picking off a pass that slipped through Woodard’s hands.

But Woodard quickly exacted his revenge, making a bobbling catch in the end zone on third-and-goal early in the fourth quarter to put the Cougars ahead 28-10 after a two-point conversion.

Just over two minutes of game time later, Woodard scored what would be the dagger touchdown, taking a punt 62 yards nearly untouched to the end zone, putting Logan County ahead 35-10.

He did it with one shoe.

“Yeah, it was exciting,” Woodard said. “I really didn’t even think I was gonna go back. I caught it, a dude grabbed my right ankle and I came out of my shoe. I was surprised and I just had to kick on the jets.”

Logan County (3-0) travels to Russellville next week (0-3), and Warren East will look to bounce back in a road game against Greenwood.

Logan County 0 20 0 15 35

Warren East 3 7 0 7 17

First quarter

WE – Kobe Kawaii 28 field goal.

Second quarter

LC – Maurice Gordon 8 pass from Tyler Ezell 8 pass (Arevalo kick)

LC – Jarrett Sears 52 pass from Ezell (Arevalo kick)

WE – KJ Alexander 4 run (Kawaii kick)

LC – Anthony Woodard 3 pass from Ezell (kick failed)

Fourth quarter

LC – Woodard 15 pass from Ezell (Sells pass from Ezell)

LC – Woodard 62 punt return (Arevalo kick)

WE – Nolan Ford 1 run (Kawaii kick){&end}