MIKE MARSEE

Contributing writer

Sounds like someone had a case of the Mondays.

Mondays are good days for football players and coaches who return to school after a win on Friday, but Boyle County Coach Justin Haddix was reminded this week of what Mondays are like after Friday didn’t go so well.

“There’s nothing like coming to school on Monday after a loss,” Haddix said. “It makes you love winning.”

Boyle’s loss last week at Lexington Catholic in its district opener left the Rebels with a little more housekeeping to do than usual as they prepare for Friday’s game against Anderson County — and the rest of the season.

The Boyle coach has said after each game this season that there were things to “clean up,” and he said the LexCath game — and particularly the second half — showed how dirty the house really is.

“The things we’ve been talking about, the things we need to clean up obviously get magnified when you lose,” Haddix said.

Failure is an unfamiliar feeling for a Boyle team that has lost only five times in the past six seasons and is 31-2 in Haddix’s three seasons as coach, and he said the focus will be on what the Rebels did wrong rather than on the result of those mistakes.

“In football you have maybe 120, 130 plays in a game. Obviously, we failed in a bunch of those plays,” Haddix said. “But we’re not going to feel sorry for ourselves, and no one else is going to feel sorry for Boyle County.”

Boyle (6-1, 0-1 District 4A-5) will get a chance to make things right against Anderson (2-5, 0-1), a team the Rebels have dominated like no other since 2019, when the current district configuration went into effect.

The Rebels have won five running-clock games against the Bearcats during that span, outscoring them 278-33 in those games.

Anderson has won only four games during the past three seasons — two against Breckinridge County and two against Jeffersontown — but Haddix said the Bearcats have made some improvements in their third season under Coach Mark Palmer.

“They’re doing a few more things,” Haddix said. “Last year their quarterback (Eli Castle) was staying in the box, but he can run, he can move around. We’ve got to contain him and limit big plays.”

Anderson runs the ball on 80 percent of its plays, led by Camdon Higgins with 722 yards and nine touchdowns. Castle has thrown for 346 yards and three TDs.

Boyle’s injury list grew a little longer last week when running back-defensive back Avery Bodner and offensive lineman-defensive end Noah Clem left the game after suffering ankle sprains.

Haddix said the Rebels will focus more on what Boyle County wants to accomplish, rather than what Anderson can do. That’s not a knock on the Bearcats.

“It’s never about any other team,” he said. “A lot of times it’s about Boyle County, and that’s the only thing I’m worried about. If all the Boyle County players and coaches do their job, good things are going to happen.”