Five-time defending district champion Boyle County faced its first postseason elimination test and passed it with flying colors, shutting out Lincoln County 10-0 in a mercy-rule game Monday night in the 45th District Tournament semifinal round at Rebel Stadium.

Since the top two teams move on to regionals, the Rebels, last year’s regional runners-up, advance while the Patriots’ season is over.

“Your number one goal is to get to the region, and you can’t get to region if you don’t win this game, so you’ve got to win this game,” Boyle County coach Brian Deem said. “We did that. We won this game and now we can check this off our list.”

While Boyle prepares for Wednesday’s final against Danville and a regional appearance, Lincoln closes out its season with a record of 2-15.

“The season is over. Season is over,” Lincoln coach Wendy Estes said. “The girls did well. The seniors played their hearts out tonight. They knew that Boyle would be tough, but they came out and got up and they persevered. They fought to the end.”

“They are a well-polished team. They are,” she said of Boyle. “Last year Boyle had a very significant presence at region and I expect them to have a significant presence this year.”

Senior Chelsea Moore led Boyle (14-6-1) to the victory by scoring half of the team’s 10 goals. Moore punched in four goals in the first half to help the Lady Rebels to a comfortable 6-0 halftime lead, then tallied her fifth goal seven minutes into the second half.

“She definitely had a good game tonight,” Deem said. “We maneuver her in the middle and top and stuff and she does a good job.”

Moore wasn’t the only Lady Rebel finding the net in the shutout, however, with six players getting in the scorebook. Chelsea Elmore, Lindsey Warinner, Abby Howard, Lindsey Wren and Nicole Everman also lit up the scoreboard with a goal apiece.

“We don’t hang our hat on just any one girl,” said Deem. “That’s one of those things that we pride ourselves on and that’s what makes us a little dangerous.”

Elmore put the first goal up for the Lady Rebels, tallying just over three minutes into the game. Lincoln goalkeeper Dallis Brown came out of goal to try and stop an Elmore shot on goal, but Brown missed and Elmore picked up the dribble around her to score. Moore scored her first goal just four minutes later in almost the same fashion, dribbling around Brown before booting the ball into the net to make it 2-0.

Ashley Smith got the assist on Boyle’s third goal of the game. The sophomore dribbled the ball down the right sideline from 30 yards out then passed to Warriner in front of goal and Warriner pushed the ball in behind Brown.

Moore took care of the rest of the scoring in the first half with three straight goals. She slipped the first goal through Brown’s legs at the 16:56 mark, shot to the left corner of the net with 13:49 showing and put a high kick into the right back corner with 10:46 left in the half for the 6-0 advantage.

Boyle would just need 16 minutes and 4 seconds in the second half to invoke the mercy rule. Howard and Wren both scored on breakaways three minutes apart and then, with 23:56 still to play in the second half, Everman punched in a shot to make it 10-0 and end the game.

While Deem was pleased with the win, he was not completely pleased with Boyle’s effort.

“We were able to put the ball in the back of the net, but some of the things that were taking place to generate those goals weren’t very clean, so that’s where I got a little frustrated with the kids,” he said. “We’re smarter, a better team than that. I thought they did a good job of refocusing at the halftime.”

Like Deem, Estes didn’t like some of the things she saw from her Lincoln squad early in the game.

“The ball didn’t fall. The first five shots of the game – we took them,” she stated. “The middle field was a lot better. We just started out with the issues in the keeper box.”

“I’m proud of my girls,” added Estes. “We’ve been up. We’ve been down this year. We’ve got a lot of growth done. New fresh girls going up. The seniors played their hearts out. They’re happy with the way the season went. They’re happy with the lessons learned. That shows the class and caliber of seniors and girls that we have. They got up after every loss all season long.”

Boyle outshot Lincoln 23-11.

Boyle will now play Danville, an 8-0 winner over Garrard County in the other semifinal Monday, in the championship game.. They will meet at 7 p.m. at Rebel Stadium on Wednesday.

“Hopefully Wednesday we’ll come out with a little more focus and do things we’re supposed to,” Deem said. “We want to win a district title and get a number one seed for the region. We tell the kids that to reach our goal it’s a staircase, a ladder. And that’s what we’ve got to do. That’s our goal.”