“I got a couple pretty good shots in there,” Moon said with a sly smile.

Academy’s defensive leader dished out a couple of hits that would qualify for that hardest hit award in the Bees’ 21-15 win over Lexington on Friday night at John Glover Stadium.

The offense has been stellar on a weekly basis, but it was Academy’s defensive charge that helped the Bees preserve their lead in the fourth quarter and escape with their sixth straight victory.

“Our defensive guys have done a marvelous job getting these guys ready to play,” Academy coach Royce McAdams said.

Twice in the fourth quarter, Academy (6-0, 2-0 District 25-2A) came up with big stops to preserve its six-point lead.

Lexington (2-3, 1-1) was driving to start the fourth and had the ball at the Bees’ 25-yard line with 7 minutes left. But running back Clinton Huston coughed up the ball at the 15 after picking up a first down.

The Bees recovered and promptly moved down the field, keyed by a 27-yard scramble by quarterback Chase Gommert on third-and-5. But a fumble by running back Layton Willis at the Eagles’ 12-yard line gave Lexington the ball back with plenty of time remaining.

Once again, the Bees’ defense got a big stop when it needed it.

Lineman Dillon Gilmore recorded a sack and Moon forced an incompletion that helped the Bees wrap up the win.

Academy knew the key to stopping Lexington was shutting down its running game. And with a powerful offensive line, the Eagles’ ground game had been tough to contain.

Stopping the run was a concern for Academy, which had problems containing Jarrell in last week’s win.

But the Bees got stops and forced turnovers when they needed, and none was bigger than those two in the fourth quarter.

“They tried to run the (wishbone) on us, but we stopped it pretty well,” Moon said. “This week we tightened it up in practice and did a good job.”

The Bees held Lexington to 212 yards on the ground. Not bad, considering the Eagles rushed for nearly 400 yards in an overtime win last week.

Going against Lexington’s massive offensive line, Academy more than held its own.

“It’s not really the size of the guy. It’s the heart of the player,” Moon said. “It’s whoever wants to hit the hardest and fill the gaps.”

The Bees were in the same situation last week, simply needing to run out the clock to pick up another victory.

This time around, Academy was able to move the ball on the ground in the second half.

A big reason for that, McAdams said, was the Bees offensive line.

“I can’t say enough about our offensive line,” he said. “They did a great job letting us do the things we needed to do.”

Dual-threat Gommert rushed for a team-high 122 yards, including 95 in the final two quarters. And despite a pair of fumbles, running back Willis was tough to bring down, rushing for 46 yards and a first-quarter touchdown on 12 carries.

“He’s going to have to hang on to the ball a little bit, but he’s so quick,” McAdams said. “He did a great job running the ball. It was something we missed last week, not having a go-to back.”

The Bees' success throwing the ball this season - and again Friday night - forced Lexington to drop players back in coverage. But that only opened up running lanes for Gommert and Willis.

"Once they started going back for the pass, the run opens up and we were able to run it right through there," Gommert said.

Even with those extra defenders in the secondary, Gommert was still dangerous.

He fired a touchdown pass and two-point conversion toss to Chase Reeders with 1:49 left in the first half to help Academy regain the lead. The Bees led 15-8 at the half.

Gommert fired his second touchdown pass with 34 seconds left in the third quarter, hitting wingback Cody Sultenfuss to give the Bees the lead for good.

Gommert completed 11 of 25 passes for 172 yards and two touchdowns, giving him 1,079 yards in six games.

As he walked off the field with a fist pump and a whoop, McAdams was already thinking about that Hammer Award.

Teammates say Moon earned it, but McAdams just might be tempted to let his defense share it.

“It’s going to be hard this week,” he said.

rschneider@temple-telegram.com