‘Hitting on all cylinders.’ 4A Boyle County dominates 6A Douglass in tuneup for playoffs.
There’s something about the new rivalry between Boyle County and Frederick Douglass that brings out the best in the visiting team.
Friday night, it was the Class 4A No. 1 Rebels’ turn to feast at The Farm in the final game of the regular season.
Boyle County (10-0) dominated Class 6A No. 3 Douglass (5-4) during a 28-7 win in which it held the Broncos to a mere 10 yards rushing and only 45 yards of total offense. Thirty-two of those yards came on the only Douglass scoring play.
“What a great job our defense did,” Boyle County coach Justin Haddix said. “Travis Burns and our defensive staff did a great job. We’re just proud of our guys.”
Five different Rebels notched tackles for a loss with Cole Stonionis and Bryce Bullock also getting a sack each and Jayce Crowe and Gage Feltner sharing a sack. Douglass’s only first down came on a defensive holding call in the second quarter. Douglass was forced to punt seven times and had one turnover on downs.
“It was a butt-whoopin’,” Douglass coach Nathan McPeek said. “It happened two years ago here as well. Credit to Coach Haddix and his staff. We couldn’t get nothing going offensively. I really didn’t recognize our team to be honest with you. That’s on me.”
Meanwhile, Boyle County’s offense built a 14-0 lead early. Sage Dawson completed a 9-yard pass to Montavin Quisenberry for the first score midway through the first quarter. Avery Bodner punched in a 2-yard TD run about two minutes into the second quarter.
Midway through the second quarter, a Boyle County fumble in its own half of the field set up the Douglass touchdown. Two plays later kicker/wideout Cooper Ranvier wrestled a 32-yard TD pass away from his defender as they tumbled to the turf.
Douglass looked to have some momentum going into halftime after mounting a goal-line stand to deny Boyle County another score from inches away. The Broncos tackled Bodner short of the goal as the clock ran out.
But the Broncos’ first drive of the third quarter went negative 10 yards, forcing another punt. The Rebels wasted little time padding their lead.
Quisenberry lined up to take a direct snap in the wildcat formation and broke loose for a 44-yard touchdown run to help Boyle push its advantage to 21-7 with 7:17 left in the third quarter.
“When we called it, I was just trying to get the first down,” Quisenberry said. “But all of a sudden our O-linemen moved everybody out of the way and the hole was so wide it was just me and the safety. I made the safety miss and I was gone.”
Quisenberry, a three-star junior with multiple Division I offers, including Kentucky, finished with 95 yards rushing and 59 yards receiving.
Boyle sealed the game with a drive that consumed almost the entire fourth quarter and was capped by a Bodner TD plunge from the 1-yard line. Bodner had 140 yards rushing to go with the two scores.
“We were just hitting on all cylinders,” Bodner said. “I’ve got to give a lot of credit to my offensive line, opening up holes for me. And then the wide-outs blocking and doing their thing — everybody doing their job.”
The win gives Boyle a 2-1 edge in their series with Douglass. Boyle won 34-7 in Lexington in 2021. Douglass won 37-6 in Danville last year.
In each of those years, Boyle and Douglass advanced to their respective state championship games in their classes. Both won state titles last year. Boyle has won three Class 4A titles in a row.
“It gives us a lot of confidence going into the playoffs,” Bodner said. “It gives us a good boost, but we’ve got to keep working and stack good days on good days.”
For Douglass, the loss serves as a wake-up call.
“We’ve got two choices,” McPeek said. “We can either batten down the hatches and make a run or not. There’s a lot of things that we’ve got to fix.”
Frederick Douglass opens the 6A playoffs at home against Henry Clay next week. Boyle County will host Whitley County in its 4A playoffs opener.
This story was originally published October 28, 2023 at 9:16 AM.
