By Mike Marsee

Contributing Writer

Boyle County was one of the first teams to reach the second round of the playoffs.

The Rebels were efficient on offense as they made quick work of Whitley County on Thursday night to win their first-round game in the Class 4A playoffs at Rebel Stadium.

They triggered the running clock shortly before halftime en route to a 41-6 victory, the first of five postseason victories they will need to capture a fourth consecutive state championship.

Boyle scored at will, averaging 24.1 yards on the 14 offensive plays it ran in the first half and reaching the end zone on all six of its first-half possessions.

“I felt like we got off to a good start the way we wanted to,” Boyle coach Justin Haddix said.

Haddix said the urgency of the postseason and the need to put opponents away as quickly as possible is not lost on players who quickly turned the page from a big win in their final regular-season game six days earlier.

“They understand what it is,” he said. “A lot of these guys have played in some big-time games, so they understand what’s going on.”

Boyle (11-0) will try to press repeat this Friday when it hosts Perry County Central in a second-round game.

The Rebels used big plays to put away Whitley (5-6) in the first round. None of their scoring drives consisted of more than three plays, and four of their six touchdowns were on plays of at least 49 yards.

Montavin Quisenberry scored on pass plays of 58 and 71 yards, Geordon Brown scored on a 49-yard pass and Avery Bodner scored on a 69-yard run for Boyle, which had 338 yards at halftime and 378 in all.

Sage Dawson attempted only eight passes but completed five of them for 207 yards and four touchdowns, including an 8-yard pass to Demauriah Brown, and Dawson also had a 17-yard TD run.

Quisenberry had 129 receiving yards on only two catches, and Bodner had 106 rushing yards on three carries.

“The first group came out and played the way we wanted to, but I was disappointed in our second group, especially on offense,” Haddix said. “We’ve got a lot of room to improve.”

Errors of execution cost Boyle’s reserves a chance to score in the third quarter, and the Rebels lost one onside kick and nearly lost another, and those things left a bad taste in Haddix’s mouth on an otherwise good night.

“We’re trying to strive to be perfect. We know we’re never going to get there, but we’ve got to work toward that,” he said.

Whitley got 220 yards against Boyle’s defense, and 73 of those yards came on its lone scoring drive in the second half.

Perry (7-4), the Rebels’ next opponent, advanced with a 56-35 victory over Lincoln County in which it rolled up 434 yards but allowed 411.

The Commodores, who have never played Boyle, lost to Whitley 56-32 during the regular season. They are averaging 31.5 points per game but have allowed 31.8 per game.

Scoring summary

WC 0-0-6-0 — 6

BC 21-20-0-0 — 41

First Quarter

BC – Montavin Quisenberry 58 pass from Sage Dawson (Andrew Carr kick), 8:36.

BC – Demauriah Brown 8 pass from Dawson (Carr kick), 6:09.

BC – Geordon Brown 49 pass from Dawson (Carr kick), 2:35.

Second Quarter

BC – Dawson 17 run (Carr kick), 9:51.

BC – Avery Bodner 69 run (run failed), 7:08.

BC – Quisenberry 71 pass from Dawson (Carr kick), 2:31.

Third Quarter

WC – Shane Parker 32 pass from Tye Hamblin (run failed), 9:47.