By Shane Shackleford
Sports Writer

The Leslie County Eagles overcame a quick early deficit to defeat the Pineville Mountain Lions 35-6 Friday night in the Gem City.
The Eagles played without star quarterback Landry Collett, who was serving a suspension for an altercation the week prior against Somerset.
The Eagles responded to the loss with a stellar effort by reserve sophomore quarterback Brayden Holland. The lefty signal-caller accounted for three touchdowns (two rushing, one passing) to lead the attack for Leslie, which improved to 5-5 with the victory.
However, it was the Lions who broke out to the early lead behind the rushing of Kaiden and Landon Robbins. Pineville (1-8) marched 60 yards on eight plays and found paydirt as Landon Robbins bulled his way in from 1 yard out on fourth down to give PHS the lead at 6-0 with 5:59 to go in the first quarter.
On the ensuing Leslie drive, Kaiden Robbins made a nice play for the Pineville defense. The senior defensive back made a leaping interception to give the ball back to the offense at 3:30 to go in the quarter. The Pineville drive was extended on a 20-yard completion from Zak Brown to Tate Slone on fourth down, but it was cut short on a fourth-and-one hold by the Leslie defense
deep in Eagle territory.
The Eagles responded offensively with their first scoring drive of the night, which covered 93 yards on six plays, the last 23 yards coming on a strike from Holland to Caden Shepherd. Leslie kicker Jesse Osborne’s first of five straight extra points was true, and the Eagles led 7-6
with 4:11 to go in the second period.
The Lions’ situation went from bad to worse on the next possession when PHS was tagged with consecutive penalties and a bad snap that was fumbled by Brown and recovered by Leslie at the Pineville 4.
However, the Lion defense bowed their backs and held the Eagles on the one-yard line on a spirited goal line stand to allow the Lions to escape harm with Leslie still holding a razor-thin lead at 7-6 at the half.
Leslie took the second-half kickoff and marched 60 yards on five plays with the keynote coming on a 1-yard dive by Holland. Osborne’s kick was good and Leslie extended the lead to 14-6 with 8:23 remaining in the third quarter.
The Lions were bit on their next drive with a fumble recovered by the Eagles. Leslie made quick work of the offense with a 27-yard run by Tanner Sizemore for the score. Osborne’s kick made the score 21-6.
The turnover bug bit again as another PHS fumble was cashed in by the Eagles when Holland scored from 5 yards out to make the score 28-6 Leslie with 3:45 to go in the third.
Kaiden Robbins made his second interception of the night with 11:45 to go in the fourth quarter, but it would prove too little too late as Leslie held on defense and scored their final touchdown with a 9-yard scamper by Jeremiah Sparks. Osborne nailed the final kick to set the score at 35-6 Eagles.
Pineville will move on to the KHSAA Class A playoffs with a first-round matchup at state-power Pikeville on Friday night. Leslie County will travel to Bracken County in the opening round of the 2A playoffs.

Leslie County 35, Pineville 6
1 2 3 4 T
LC 0 7 21 7 35
P 6 0 0 0 6
P- L Robbins 1 run (run failed)
LC- Shepherd 23 pass from Holland (Osborne kick)
LC- Holland 1 run (Osborne kick)
LC- Sizemore 27 run (Osborne kick)
LC- Holland 5 run (Osborne kick)
LC- Sparks 9 run (Osborne kick)