A game that began badly for Boyle County got better in a hurry.

The Rebels were victimized by an onside kick at their start of their game Friday at Lincoln County, but that only delayed the expected outcome.

They scored on five of their first six possessions and turned Lincoln away from their goal line twice in a 41-0 victory that extended their string of running-clock wins to five and extended their current win streak to one of the 20 longest in state history.

Boyle didn’t score until midway through the first quarter but had three touchdowns over the next eight minutes on only nine offensive plays.

So while coach Justin Haddix wasn’t pleased with that first play, he was happy enough with the overall result.

“Overall, we’re OK with it, but we’ve got to continue to get better,” Haddix said. “We practice (the onside kick) all the time, and that’s the frustrating thing as a coach, the things that you practice all the time and then they don’t execute it on a Friday night. But that’s also coaching and dealing with kids and there’s always room to improve, but overall I’m proud that we got rolling and got a running clock in the first half.”

Boyle (8-0, 3-0 District 4A-7), which rose to No. 13 in two national rankings last week, has won its last seven district games by the mercy rule, and Friday’s win at Death Valley allowed the Rebels to secure at least a tie for first place in the district standings.

It was their 28th consecutive victory, a run that is tied for 19th place on the list of the state’s longest winning streaks. Two of the streaks ahead of them were authored by previous Boyle teams, including a 30-game streak in 2009-10.

Baylor Murphy threw for three touchdowns and Demauriah Brown and Montavin Quisenberry scored two TDs each for the Rebels, whose offense racked up more than 500 yards for the third time this season.

On defense, Boyle held its opponent to less than 100 yards for the second time this year and stopped Lincoln in Boyle territory three times, including two advances that took the Patriots inside the 5-yard line before they were turned away.

“We talk about that all the time: When they get down there, you’ve got to bow your back and not let them get in the end zone,” Haddix said. “I felt like we made some good plays there and attacked.”

Lincoln got to the Boyle 39 after Jordan Potts recovered the opening onside kick before turning the ball over on downs.

Late in the first quarter, Lincoln’s Canaan Dawson recovered a fumble – Boyle’s first turnover in three games – in Boyle territory and the Patriots got as far as the 2 before a 15-yard penalty pushed them back. In the third quarter, Lincoln kept the ball for 11 minutes and drove 65 yards to the Boyle 4 before stalling against the Rebels’ second-team defense.

Lincoln was shut out for the first time in 22 games by a Boyle defense that has held its last four opponents and a total of five to eight points or less, and the Patriots were powerless to prevent the Rebels from putting up 502 yards.

Even so, Lincoln coach Levi Rogers was upbeat about the way his team performed against a superior team.

“The effort was there, the fight was there, mistakes were limited,” Rogers said. “That’s the best team in the state, you know, and … other than a couple of drives we made them drive the football. We struggled to get them off the field on third and fourth downs, but the fact we were getting them in third and fourth downs, that hasn’t happened to them a whole lot this year.”

Brown had 153 of Boyle’s 275 rushing yards on seven carries, and he scored on runs of 64 and 10 yards in the second quarter. He has 736 yards and a team-high nine rushing touchdowns on the season.

Quisenberry caught two touchdown passes from Murphy in the first quarter, scoring from 3 and 34 yards out on his only two receptions of the game,

Murphy, who also connected with Austin Bodner for a second-quarter TD, was 9 for 15 for 105 yards. Bodner had four catches for 54 yards.

JiDyn Smith-Hisel scored a rushing touchdown in the closing minutes to cap a 19-play drive in which the junior varsity offense stayed on the field for almost 12 minutes.

“The JV moved the ball down the field and a lot of guys got to see their first taste tonight,” Haddix said. “And we’re still coaching them. They’re getting coached and getting pushed to do the right thing. Those guys are going to be the next ones up and they’ve got to be ready to go.”

Kash Smith rushed for 41 yards to lead Lincoln, which had 97 yards in all.

Foster was pleased that the Patriots, who must win this Friday at Taylor County to make the playoffs, limited their mistakes.

“For the most part, it was pretty clean football for us and max effort, and I told our guys we’re a pretty good football team when we give that kind of effort and that kind of execution and play hard … and we’ve got to have it all next week,” he said.

* * *

A victory this Friday at Wayne County would give Boyle its second straight district title and its seventh in eight years.

Wayne (7-1, 2-1) is second in the district standings but has a loss to Taylor on its record. The Cardinals bounced back from that loss to defeat Lincoln and Russell counties by seven and nine points.