MONTICELLO — Braedon Slone may have had the cleanest uniform on the field after his Wayne County Cardinals finished off a 55-22 win Friday over visiting Harlan County, and it certainly wasn’t because he didn’t contribute to the victory.

Wayne’s star junior tailback ran for 203 yards on five carries and had one catch for 73 yards, scoring touchdowns all six times he touched the ball while barely being touched and never tackled by the HCHS defense.

“We knew he was a special athlete,” said Harlan County coach Eddie Creech, who had touted Slone was an “all-state lock” earlier in the week. “We could have done some things better on our side, but we knew how good he was.”

Harlan County collected 260 yards of offense in the first half and 337 for the game but could not overcome four turnovers.

“I thought we had.a good gameplan to start, but we have to learn how to finish drives,” Creech said.

In a statistical oddity, the Bears had 14 first downs compared to only eight for Wayne as the Cards scored six times on one-play drives with another drive covering two plays and another covering four.

Junior quarterback Brody Weaver also had a big game for the Cards, completing six of nine passes for 242 yards and three touchdowns.

Sloan started his impressive first half on the opening play as he slipped behind HCHS safety Jacob Bailey for a 73-yard touchdown pass from Weaver. Patrick Radilla gave the Cardinals a 7-0 lead only a few seconds into the game.

Harlan County moved inside the Wayne 30 before being stopped on downs. The Bears’ defense held on Wayne’s second series, but Matt Brown fumbled the punt and Sloan scored on a 38-yard run on the next play. Radilla’s kick pushed the lead to 14-0 with 3:35 to play in the first quarter.

Harlan County answered with a five-play, 68-yardd drive that was capped by Tyler Casolari’s 24-yard run. The Bears were stopped on the two-point attempt after a Wayne penalty.

A long kickoff by Tito Ruiz set up Sloan’s next big play, a 22-yard TD run. Another kick by Radilla made the score 21-6 in the closing seconds of the period.

HCHS drove into Wayne territory again before a Ruiz interception on a pass from Cody Clayborn, who had caught a pass near the sideline from Jacob Wilson, put the Cardinals back in business. Sloan lined up at quarterback on a fourth-and-two play and went untouched again, covering 67 yards for a touchdown. The extra point kick failed, but Wayne led 27-6.

Another Ruiz interception set up a two-play scoring drive as Ruiz caught a short pass from Weaver and went 53 yards. Sloan scored on the next play from the 6. Padilla’s kick pushed the lead to 34-6.

The Bears marched 64 yards in seven plays as Matt Brown caught a screen pass from Wilson and went 30 yards. Demarco Hopkins had the big play in the drive as he ran 18 yards on a fourth-and-three play. Matt Brown’s run cut the deficit to 34-14.

Weaver teamed with Thomas Spencer for a 62-yard touchdown on the Cards’ next offensive play as the lead grew to 41-14 with 16.2 seconds left in the half following Padilla’s extra point.

Wayne scored twice in the third quarter to start a running clock. Sloan ran 22 yards for a touchdown the only time he touched the ball in the second half. Weaver found Carson Simpson for a 40-yard scoring strike on the Cards’ second possession of the half. Radilla added two more extra points for a 55-14 lead with 8:05 left in the third quarter.

The Bears added another touchdown in the final minute when Wilson teamed with Justin Brown for an 11-yard touchdown pass. Cameron Smiddy added the two-point conversion.

Harlan County (4-1) will open district play on Friday at Clay County. Wayne County (4-1) plays host to Danville on Friday.

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Wayne County 55, Harlan County 22

Harlan County. 6. 8 0. 8 —22

Wayne County 21. 20. 14 0 — 41

WC — Sloan 73 pass from Weaver (Padilla kick)

WC — Sloan 38 run (Padilla kick)

HC — Casolari 24 run (run failed)

WC — Sloan 72 run (Padilla kick)

WC — Sloan 67 run (kick failed)

WC — Sloan 6 run (Padilla kick)

HC — M. Brown 30 pass from Wilson (M. Brown run)

WC — Spencer 62 pass from Weaver (Padilla kick)

WC — Sloan 22 run (Radilla kick)

WC — Simpson 40 pass from Weaver (Radilla kick)

HC — J. Brown 11 pass from Wilson (Smiddy run)

HCHS. WCHS

First downs 14 8

Rushing-Yds 39-189 15-209

Passing 181 242

Comp-Att-Int 10-22-3-181 6-9-0-242

Penalties 2-25. 5-31

RUSHING—Harlan County, Landis 16-88, Casolari 7-40, Smiddy 3-24, Hopkins 4-21, Bailey 2-13, M. Brown 3-3, Turner 1-3, Wilson 3-(-10). Wayne County, Sloan 5-203, Weaver 3-3, Cares 1-2, Simpson 1-0, Baker 5-0.

PASSING — Harlan County, Wilson 10-21-2-181, Clayborn 0-1-1-0. Wayne County, Weaver 6-9-0-242.

RECEIVING—Harlan County, M Brown 6-146, J. Brown 3-35, Clayborn 1-0. Wayne County, Slone 1-73, Spencer 1-62, Ruiz 1-53, Simpson 1-40, Vaughn 1-13, Godsey 1-1.