Prepzone Pigskin Preview 2017

LEXINGTONMINUTEMEN
By: Chelsea Croft
For the past two years, the
Lexington Minutemen have
ended their football seasons at
1-8 in class B7, losing all of their
away games. The school’s last
winning season was back in 2008
when the team went 6-4.
But this year, the Minutemen
have five returning offensive
starters and six starters returning
on defense. With 2017 being
Jeff Rowan’s fifth year as the
head coach for Lexington, he
said, “Program numbers are
improving, so we will have
competition at almost every
position.”
In 2016, Lexington put up an
average 11.7 points per game
and allowed almost 41 points to
be scored on them.
Those numbers reflect the lack
of experience on the roster, but
Rowan said, “They played a
lot of young kids last year and
that experience will show this
season.”
The fact that the Minutemen
scored 11 rushing touchdowns
last year and only two passing
touchdowns proves Lexington
has more strength in their
running game. The team
accumulating 1,056 rushing
yards in 2016 compared to the
team’s 836 passing yards also
speaks to the talent Lexington
has in its backfield.
Running a spread offense, junior
quarterback Jake Leger will be
returning with some experience
under his belt. He has 387 career
passing yards, one passing
touchdown, and averages 48.4
yards per game.
However, Leger ran in six
touchdowns during his
sophomore year and had one
game with over 100 yards
rushing.
The orange and black did break
school records in 2016 for kickoff
return yardage and punt return
yardage in a single season,
meaning the special teams is on
the right track.
Coach Rowan said there’s great
senior leadership this year with
five seniors coming out to be role
models for the younger players.
2017 SCHEDULE
8/25 Sidney
9/1 @ York
9/8 Scottsbluff
9/15 @ Northwest
9/22 Alliance
9/29 @ Gering
10/6 Holdrege
10/13 @ Hastings
10/20 McCook
One of those seniors is three-year
starter Oracio Corona, who is an
offensive and defensive lineman.
Rowan specifically praises
Corona as a great team leader,
but he’s also a top performer on
the field. Corona has 17 career
solo tackles and 57 total tackles
averaging 3.6 tackles per game.
Key Players:
Oracio Corona (6’1” 240 lbs) Sr.
OL/DL
Ethan Woehrle (6’2” 230 lbs) Sr.
OL/DL
Javier Rivas (5”11” 180 lbs) Sr.
RB
TEAM FACTS
Team Name: Minutemen
Class: B
2016 Record: 1-8
Playoff Appearances: 15
Head Coach: Jeff Rowan
Career Record: 9-27
Assistant Coach: Mark Burson
MAC’S
SHORT
STOP
308-324-7220
1110 N Adams St, Lexington, NE
Good Luck to the
Lexington Minutemen!
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