The status quo was maintained in the Constitution Cup series.

The annual crosstown doubleheader matching the Boyle County and Danville soccer teams looked very much as it did a year ago, as the Boyle boys and girls kept possession of the traveling trophies with convincing wins Thursday.

Both Danville teams had gotten off to good starts this season, but the Boyle teams stopped them cold with a 5-1 victory in the boys game and an 8-0 victory in the girls game at Gary Reynolds Field.

The Boyle boys kept Danville at bay to earn their fifth consecutive Constitution Cup victory and their ninth straight win overall in the crosstown series.

Then the Boyle girls got their second mercy rule win over Danville in as many years, winning their fourth consecutive Constitution Cup game and beating their archrival for the 24th time in 27 meetings.

Boys

Boyle County 5, Danville 1

Boyle (4-2-1) took advantage of breakaway opportunities to post five goals on Danville (5-3) for the fourth consecutive game between the teams.

Maximus Kilby and Zac Kirchner scored on one-on-one opportunities in the first half after slicing through Danville’s defenders and drawing out the goalkeeper, and Chandler Durham punched the ball into an empty net and Bo Little scored on a runout in the second half to put the game out of reach.

“They did a great job of getting forward and really countering when (Danville) got some numbers forward,” Boyle coach David Ritchie said.

Kilby, who gave the Rebels a 2-0 lead when he scored from 20 yards in the 33rd minute, said the players work hard in practice to make the most of their speed.

“We’re a hard-working, disciplined team every day at practice,” he said. “It’s hard work, it’s go at it and we just lock in every practice.”

Ritchie said Boyle’s midfielders also did a good job of snuffing out almost every opportunity Danville tried to create.

“I thought we did a really good job pressuring them in the midfield,” he said. “They have some very talented players in the midfield, and they just didn’t have any space or time to create, which led to us being able to get guys forward as well.”

Danville coach Brent Beauman said the Admirals were slow to respond to the Rebels in the first half.

“Player-wise I think we’re pretty equal, but their effort and their movement and they weren’t allowing us to have anything, and we were backing off,” Beauman said. “It doesn’t take any skill to run hard and challenge, and in the second half we did that and it was a much, much better game.”

Tyler Clarkson scored for Danville in the 69th minute to make it 3-1, but the Admirals couldn’t muster another scoring chance before Boyle’s Durham scored in the 73rd minute to seal the Rebels’ win.

“It definitely doesn’t get old,” Kilby said of beating Danville. “We paint the street black and gold tonight.”

Alan Wireman had Boyle’s first goal eight minutes into the game.

Beauman said he didn’t want this defeat to nullify the good things Danville had done to this point, and in fact the Admirals bounced back Saturday with a 2-1 win over Frankfort in an All “A” Classic sectional game to earn a berth in the All “A” statewide tournament Sept. 21-22 in Louisville.

“No one ever wants to lose and no one wants to lose this game, but there’s more to play,” Beauman said. “Let’s use this as movement forward instead of the world ending. We’re so close to being really good. It’s just a couple things, and they all work so hard and they all want it.”

Girls

Boyle County 8, Danville 0

Boyle (5-2-1) scored three times in the first 15 minutes and was in full control for the rest of the night against Danville (4-5-1).

The Lady Rebels led 4-0 midway through the first half and 7-0 at halftime, and they got a mercy rule win – the mercy rule margin was reduced from 10 goals to eight this season – when Maggie Gnann scored in the 63rd minute.

“We’ve been working on really trying to keep possession and play simple, and I think that helped us tonight,” Gnann said. “We’re just trying to build for postseason, so we keep working on finding feet, possession, playing simple and I think it’s worked really well so far.”

Maggie Burke scored three goals and Gnann had two for Boyle, and Reagan Britt, Ellee Kendrick and Claire Combs had one each.

Six different players had assists, including freshmen Emory Deem, Maddie Fields and Stella Thompson along with Britt, who had two, Gnann and Addison Hazlett.

“We’ve been really focusing a lot on our possession and just being able to move the ball and not necessarily force it, and I thought we did a really good job tonight with that,” Boyle coach Brian Deem said.

An improving Danville team came into the game with a four-game winning streak, and Brian Deem said it was important for the Lady Rebels to take control of the game quickly.

“One of the things we’ve been preaching is the longer we allow teams to stay around, the more hope it gives them,” he said. “We’re trying to do our best to eliminate that hope early so we can then take control of the game and control the tempo and the flow of the game, and I think we’ve been doing a pretty good job of that.”

Danville starts only two upperclassmen but has made progress in the early weeks of this season with a young team, but coach J.D. Smith said he doesn’t think the latest loss to Boyle will undo what the Lady Admirals have done so far.

“And it won’t,” Smith said. “It’s just another game and we’re going to bounce back, and at the same time … with the character of the girls on this team, they’re going to put this on themselves whether I want them to or not, and they’re going to come back tomorrow to practice and they’re going to work hard.”