Four-peat: Boyle County blanks Covington Catholic in dominating state finals performance
The only question Boyle County left after its 41-0 win over Covington Catholic on Friday night in the 2023 UK HealthCare Sports Medicine Class 4A Football State Finals championship game is whether the Rebels are the best team in the state regardless of class.
Class 4A had five undefeated teams to start the postseason. Only Boyle remains unbeaten. And the Rebels knocked off an impressive list of teams in the regular season, as well.
“That’s for you guys to decide,” joked Boyle County coach Justin Haddix after his Rebels completed their fourth straight state championship of his tenure and most dominant one yet at Kroger Field. “Wire-to-wire, they’ve been the No. 1 team in some rankings. We just had to come out and play our best and let y’all decide the rest.”
Boyle County’s dynamic junior playmaker Montavin “Tavi” Quisenberry showed off about every move in his arsenal as he scored the first touchdown of the game late in the first quarter. His 13-yard run to the end zone included a spin move to escape one tackle and two juke-steps to elude the others.
“I knew once I got outside, I could make some people miss, because of watching film a little bit,” said Quisenberry, who finished with 93 yards rushing, 46 yards receiving and had a 39-yard punt return for a touchdown, all of which helped earn the game’s most valuable player award. “(The MVP award) is cool, but I like the big trophy.”
Boyle senior quarterback Sage Dawson scrambled for a first down on a third-and-17 play that kept that first scoring drive alive. The Rebels also converted three of four fourth-down plays on the night. Dawson had 65 yards and a touchdown rushing to go with 131 yards passing that included a 36-yard scoring strike to Geordon Brown in the fourth quarter to set the final margin and start the mercy-rule running clock with 6:56 to play in the game.
“I trusted my guys to make plays,” said Dawson, who was named Class 4A player of the year by the Kentucky Football Coaches Association ahead of the game. “I’ll go to anybody on that field.”
As good as Dawson, Quisenberry and their teammates were on offense, the Rebels’ defense might have been better.
Boyle County shut out Class 5A’s fourth best scoring team (41.6 points per game) by limiting Covington Catholic to 64 total yards. The Colonels’ frustrations included a first-half interception by Austin Bodner, four sacks of quarterback Evan Pitzer and four turnovers on downs.
“We wanted to play our best,” Haddix said. “I thought we did pretty close to that for four quarters.”
Boyle County senior Avery Bodner recorded two of those sacks to go with 5½ tackles in addition to his offensive role as running back. He rushed for 76 yards and two touchdowns.
“(The defense) was incredible,” Bodner said. “Everybody was doing their job and everybody was trusting everybody. … that makes it a lot easier.”
Bodner’s 8-yard sack of Pitzer midway through the second quarter pinned the Colonels on their own 1-yard line and forced a low, hastened punt from Tate Kruer that Quisenberry caught on the run at the CovCath 39. He blazed by everyone to help put the Rebels up 20-0 with 5:14 left till the break.
“At this program, I’m very blessed to be able to coach these guys,” Haddix said. “The plays that they make — some of those plays I wish I could draw it up. You hand it to (Bodner) or you hand it to Tavi and they make five guys miss and go score and they say, ‘Hey, that’s a great play call.’
“It’s about the players. They work awful hard for this. They’ve earned this.”
Boyle County (15-0) came into Friday’s championship as Class 4A’s No. 3 seed, according to the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s RPI Standings, despite being undefeated three-time defending state champs and No. 1 in the media and other rankings all year.
Previously unbeaten Covington Catholic (14-1) got to wear their home colors as the No. 1 seed. And as an eight-time state champion with two Class 5A titles within the last decade, few could have predicted this lopsided result.
“We ran into a buzzsaw tonight,” Covington Catholic coach Eddie Eviston said. “I’m proud of our kids. I’m proud of the season they had. I had a very exceptional group of seniors, an exceptional group of young men. … Unfortunately, we didn’t have any juice tonight.”
This makes the 12th state championship overall for Boyle County, finally surpassing Title Town rival Danville’s 11 crowns thanks to this sensational run with Haddix as head coach. The Rebels are one shy of the five-title streak enjoyed from 1999 to 2003 under Chuck Smith.
Dawson has been part of three title runs. Bodner and four other seniors (Austin Gorley, Jayce Crow, Keenan Stewart and Lance Stone) have been part of four.
“It’s awesome. It’s something I dreamed of since I was a kid growing up watching Rebel football,” Bodner said. “It’s been a dream come true. And to top it off with four is just amazing.”
