By MIKE MARSEE

Contributing Writer

Big plays led to a big addition to Boyle County’s resume.

The Rebels did some more resume-building Friday night, spanking Scott County 54-21 at Rebel Stadium in a battle between the top-ranked teams in Classes 4A and 5A.

They did it by stacking up a series of big offensive plays – and a few on defense as well – to open a commanding lead.

Eighteen of Boyle’s 46 offensive plays went for 10 yards or more, nine of them went for at least 24 yards and five of them went for more than 40 yards.

That allowed the Rebels, the No. 1 team in Class 4A in the inaugural Kentucky High School Football Media Poll, to average 12.4 yards per play and to score on their first five possessions and eight of 11 in all.

“In practice, we were just making sure we executed the big plays so we could win the ballgame,” Boyle wide receiver Demauriah Brown said. “Then we came out here and executed, played hard, trusted our teammates and we won.”

It was a win that will be beneficial for Boyle (4-0) in the KHSAA’s RPI standings, which determine home-field advantage for the later rounds of the playoffs. Scott (3-1) is one of only two teams on the Rebels’ schedule in a higher enrollment class.

“We’ve still got a long way to go for us to be playing our best, and that’s what I worry about,” Boyle coach Justin Haddix said. “Tonight it was good … and I’m just excited about our team. They come to work each week, and to see them do good things, putting that work in and doing it, that’s what you want as a coach.”

Boyle’s offense rolled up 569 yards and is averaging 439 yards through its first four games, and the Rebels scored more points than Scott had given up in 11 years.

And no one made more big plays to ignite a second straight standing-room-only crowd at Rebel Stadium than Montavin Quisenberry and Brown, two of its most athletic players.

Brown said the Rebels believed their offense could succeed with some big strikes against Scott.

“We saw that they hadn’t played a team like us,” he said.

Quisenberry contributed four of the Rebels’ eight touchdowns, and he did so in four different ways, scoring on:

• A 69-yard halfback pass that gave Boyle the lead just 67 seconds into the game.

• A 45-yard reception early in the second quarter that stretched the lead to 26-7.

• A 96-yard kickoff return just before halftime that answered a long Scott scoring drive.

• An 11-yard run on the Rebels’ first possession of the second half that made it 40-14.

Brown had his share of big plays as well, including:

• The reception of Quisenberry’s halfback pass early in the game.

• A 41-yard reception early in the second half that led to Quisenberry’s rushing touchdown.

• A 7-yard fumble recovery and return for Boyle’s final TD.

• A 29-yard run and a 41-yard reception on a second-quarter drive that did not yield a score.

There were other playmakers as well. Avery Bodner scored three touchdowns and had rushing gains of 21 and 49 yards on his way to 150 yards, and Sage Dawson completed 11 of 13 passes for 229 yards and two TDs, with seven completions of 13 yards or more.

“I felt like we stayed on rhythm basically all night,” Haddix said. “I felt really good about our offensive line. We could’ve run or really did whatever we wanted to, we felt like. We blocked well on the edge, we made plays on the edge and then we made plays down the field. (There were) very few missed executions in the whole game for us offensively.”

Haddix said there were issues on defense and special teams that must be addressed, but there were some big plays on defense as well.

One of the biggest came on Scott’s second play from scrimmage, when Avery Bodner forced a fumble that younger brother Austin recovered to set up the older brother’s first touchdown and set a tone for the night.

Scott managed a handful of big plays as well, but the Rebels limited the damage by containing the ground game that is the Cardinals’ bread-and-butter. Scott ran the ball 40 times with its wing-T offense but generated only 153 rushing yards.

Boyle scored on its first two possessions of the second half to open a 47-14 lead – the first score was set up by Jayce Crowe’s fumble recovery – and Brown’s fumble return touchdown triggered the running clock with 1:03 left in the third period.

Quisenberry finished with 224 all-purpose yards, including 136 on two kickoff returns and 77 on two receptions. Brown followed with 214 after catching five passes for 161 yards, and Avery Bodner had 178.

The Rebels roll into the start of district play this Friday at Taylor County (3-1), which has won three straight games since a season-opening loss at Mercer County.

Demauriah Brown of Boyle County gets behind the Scott County defense to haul in a pass during the first quarter Friday. Brown caught a halfback pass from Montavin Quisenberry for a 69-yard touchdown. Photo by Mike Marsee

 

Boyle County 54, Scott County 21

Scoring summary

Scott County 7-7-0-7 – 21

Boyle County 19-14-21-0 – 54

First Quarter

BC – Demauriah Brown 69 pass from Montavin Quisenberry (Andrew Carr kick), 10:53

BC – Avery Bodner 1 run (kick blocked), 7:23

SC – Jacob Fryman 1 run (Tayseer Jabbour kick), 4:13

BC – Bodner 1 run (run failed), :16

Second Quarter

BC – Quisenberry 45 pass from Sage Dawson (Carr kick), 8:41

SC – Fryman 1 run (Jabbour kick), 2:08

BC – Quisenberry 96 kickoff return (Carr kick), 1:55

Third Quarter

BC – Montavin Quisenberry 11 run (Carr kick), 8:33

BC – Bodner 13 pass from Sage Dawson (Carr kick), 5:08

BC – Brown 7 fumble recovery (Carr kick), 1:03

Fourth Quarter

SC – Thomas Feickert 1 run (Jabbour kick), 7:33