Lacey looks for place in Ashland history at Lex

By Doug Haidet

ASHLAND – Gunner Lacey probably would have hit a mailman had one walked across the

turf at Community Stadium last Friday. The Ashland High School senior linebacker was in a rabid frenzy looking for tackles with Wooster in town, knowing he needed 15 more to set the AHS record for career tackles.

But the Arrows blasted the Generals, 52-7, with Lacey even collecting the first defensive

touchdown of his career on a fumble return, and he and the starting defense took the second half off.

“I was trying to get everywhere I could, jumping on people,” Lacey recalled with a laugh. “I

was trying to get (defensive coordinator Ryan) Stackhouse to keep me in so I could get the

record, but we didn’t want to risk getting hurt.”

Rather than secure history at home on Senior Night, Lacey instead will be hunting for it

tonight on the road at Lexington in one of the biggest games in the 23-year history of Ohio

Cardinal Conference football.

The 5-foot-11, 205-pound middle linebacker needs just seven more tackles to surpass the

AHS career mark of 396 set in 2009 by Anthony Deppen. The undefeated Arrows (9-0, 5-0 OCC) – ranked No. 7 in the Division II Associated Press state poll – will be leaning on Lacey as much as ever against uber-talented Lex (8-1, 5-0) in the winner-take-all league game.

And the senior might just be frothing at the mouth.

“It’s why I love the game,” he said. “Football gives me the ability to go out there and hit

people.”

“Oh yeah, he’s crazy,” Ashland senior quarterback Nathan Bernhard said. “I played flag

football with Gunner when he was little and we’ve been friends all the way up through school. He’s always been like that.

“But he loves it and he’s exactly what you want out of a linebacker. … It’s no surprise that he’s

where he’s at, getting close to the tackle record.”

When this season closes, Lacey will have led the Arrows in tackles in three of his four varsity

seasons. His 73 this year are more than twice as many as anyone else on the team.

He finished with 140 last year as a first-team All-Ohioan, 112 as a sophomore, and was fifth

on the team with 65 as a freshman.

“This season when it comes to other teams, you can tell they’re either calling my number out

(at the line of scrimmage) – like where I am and what am I gonna do – or they’re running

plays to try to get away from me,” Lacey said. “… I honestly love it. I’m like, ‘Do something

about it.’”

Last year, when the Arrows put together their historic 12-1 campaign, Lacey wreaked havoc

with fellow All-Ohioan Tyler Sauder, a defensive back who also closed his career with more

than 300 tackles before moving on to play at Ashland University.

Ashland High School head coach Scott Valentine said Lacey has stepped into Sauder’s

leadership role beautifully this year. Now it’s not always just a punishing tackle coming from

him on the field, but often some vocal leadership on the sidelines as well.

“I’ve tried to always stress with our seniors that some of them are leaders by example,”

Valentine said, “but especially as a senior, you have to become a little more vocal and you

have to be able to say some things when they need to be said. It can’t always come from the

coaches.”

When Stackhouse thought of Ashland linebackers through the years who he might compare

to Lacey, the names that popped into his head were all former All-Ohioans.

The coach said Lacey brings the on-field intelligence like that of Deppen and Shadron

Starnes, Ashland’s record-holder for single-season tackles (202 in 2006).

But when it comes to getting downhill, he said he’s also like 2020 All-Ohioan Jakob Beverly –

a “see ball, get ball” kind of talent.

Stackhouse said he felt Lacey’s leadership ratcheted up another level in Week 8 this year

when the Arrows beat West Holmes, 40-7.

“We thought they were a team that was going to be able to run the ball against us … and it

wasn’t so much the plays that Gunner made, but the blocks that he took on that allowed other people to make plays,” Stackhouse said.

“Last year, I feel like he was trying to undercut it or do his own thing sometimes just to make

those plays.”

The coach said Lacey’s willingness to take on more blocks and let Ashland’s front-four

defenders pressure the quarterback has been a major factor in the defense’s overall success.

The Arrows’ needs last season were different, as Lacey and Sauder piled up stats as the

individual pacesetters.

For his part in 2024, Lacey had career-highs in tackles (140), tackles for loss (29), sacks (9)

and forced fumbles (4). His numbers in those categories this year (73-13-3-2) are down, but a

lot of that is simply because of how dominant the AHS defense has been.

Ashland has allowed just 92 points through nine weeks – the fewest at this point in the

season since allowing just 80 points through 10 weeks in 1978.

The starting unit, meanwhile, hasn’t allowed a point in the second half all year. And despite

those starters sitting out the bulk of most second halves this fall, the Arrows still have forced

25 turnovers.

“We’ve probably got the majority of our big plays and tackles for losses in the first quarter,”

Stackhouse said.

“It’s nice that we’re that good of a team that we can give some of the other guys some

experience,” Lacey said.

The senior said his second-cousin, Kyler Lacy, had a huge impact on the player he has

become. Kyler was a standout at Ashland during the 2011 and 2012 seasons and lived with

Gunner and his family through his college playing days at Ashland University.

“It was that older-brother type of thing ,” Gunner said. “He would be rough with me and that’s probably the reason I’m so physical and athletic today, just because I had someone like that to guide me (at a younger age).”

Lacey also will be a four-year letterman as a thrower in track and field and plans to go out for

the varsity basketball team for the first time this winter as well.

He’s got an offer to play football at Ashland University and has spoken to some other college

programs during the recruiting process. But right now, his sole football focus is on making his senior season as memorable as the 12-1, OCC-winning run in 2024.

Ashland is one of just four undefeated teams left in Division II, and a win tonight should give

the Arrows a first-round bye in the playoffs – a huge advantage in what looks to be one of the toughest regions in Ohio.

“Gunner’s definitely one of the best linebackers on any team in the state of Ohio,” Bernhard

said. “… He’s got a natural instinct on the field.”

“Being one of the best (football players in AHS history) hits deep when I really think about it,”

Lacey said. “It means a lot because I’ve put a lot of hard work into the program and I’ve had

the best coaches in program history, so it just makes sense.”