Boyle County holds off Douglass in close fight at The Farm
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Boyle County edged Douglass 20-13 in a rivalry game that revealed playoff form
- Rebels converted multiple fourth downs and relied on Driver and Blakemore
- Win moved Boyle to Class 4A RPI No.1 for home advantage into semifinals
The fifth edition of Boyle County’s annual Week 11 tilt against Frederick Douglass turned out to be the most competitive battle of this cross-district rivalry yet.
As a prelude to the postseason, it showed why the Class 4A No. 1 Rebels and the Class 6A No. 5 Broncos can both make deep playoff runs in their respective divisions.
It also offered plenty of errors and coaching points for this week’s film sessions.
Boyle County escaped its trip to The Farm with a 20-13 victory despite a fourth-quarter fumble that gave Douglass a lifeline. A failed Rebel two-point conversion later in the game kept the margin at seven points and set up a fight to the finish.
“We were playing a really good team,” Boyle County coach Justin Haddix said. “They had opportunities. We had opportunities. We left some points out there early, you know, and that’s things you can’t do against good teams. … I loved our fight. When things didn’t go our way, we just came together.”
Down 20-13 in the fourth quarter, Douglass had two late drives to try to tie it up. The first ended at Boyle County’s 23-yard line when Rebels linebacker Brayden Borders-Coffman batted down Douglass quarterback Jayden Guzman’s pass attempt over the middle with 1:09 to play.
But Douglass had all three of its timeouts left and stuffed Boyle on its final series to force a punt.
The Broncos got the ball back at their own 46-yard line with 37 seconds to play. A 31-yard completion to TJ Stewart and a pass interference call brought Douglass to the Boyle 18-yard line with 13.2 seconds left.
That was enough time for three tosses to the end zone. None connected.
“Our kids fought,” Douglass coach Nathan McPeek said. “It was a good game going into the playoffs. I’m not discouraged. We’ve just got to execute better in those moments.”
After a halting first quarter, Douglass scored first as junior running back Dakari Talbert capped a 10-play, 78-yard drive with a 6-yard touchdown run seven seconds into the second quarter.
Boyle tied the game 7-7 on its next series as Darryl Yancey punched in a 3-yard touchdown run to cap a 59-yard drive with 7:01 left till halftime.
Then, disaster struck for the Broncos. As Guzman rolled right to pass, the ball slipped from of his throwing grip, and Yancey scooped it. A penalty negated Yancey’s scoop and score, but it took just six plays for Boyle County to convert the turnover into points.
Boyle County sophomore QB Jhet Raleigh hit tight end Seneca Driver over the middle for a 26-yard TD pass that put the Rebels up 14-7 with 2:08 left in the second quarter.
“I read the linebacker,” Raleigh said. “He came up, and I just threw it right behind him.”
The teams exchanged punts to start the second half before Boyle County drove to the Douglass 10-yard line. Douglass pounced on a fumbled snap on fourth down and took over at its own 19.
The Broncos put together their best drive of the game. Guzman rolled out and found Kane Bell-Pointer in the end zone for a 10-yard TD pass to cut the deficit to 14-13 with 8:46 left in the game. Douglass missed the extra point.
Throughout the game, Boyle County sustained drives by converting fourth downs. Its sixth out of eight tries on the Rebels’ next series might have been the biggest.
Driver, Boyle’s 6-foot-7, four-star tight end/defensive end, lined up at quarterback on fourth-and-3 at the Broncos’ 26-yard line. Although he fumbled the snap on the same play just a few minutes prior, Haddix called Driver’s number again.
The Broncos met Driver short of the line to gain but could not bring him down until he’d chewed up 15 yards.
“It was a good first-down play,” Driver said. “I just tried to find the hole and run as hard as I could.”
Yancey scored his second touchdown a few plays later to put Boyle up 20-13 with 2:38 left in the contest. Boyle’s 2-point conversion try failed. Sam Blakemore led Boyle with 155 rushing yards on 25 carries.
Haddix called Driver’s fourth-down run the biggest play of the game, but credited his defense for its effort at the end.
“Defensively, there late, that was something,” Haddix said. “Our backs were against the wall, and they got some momentum. Our guys just stayed together and made plays.”
The win helped Boyle County overtake Johnson Central as Class 4A’s No. 1 team in the KHSAA’s RPI Standings, which means the Rebels will have home field advantage through the state semifinals if they advance. Boyle has been the media poll No. 1 in 4A for most of the season.
The loss dropped Douglass to Class 6A’s No. 5 spot, behind No. 1 South Warren, No. 2 Manual, No. 3 St. Xavier and No. 4 Trinity.
Other Lexington games
Bryan Station 36, South Oldham 14: Taking the first varsity snaps of his career, Jordan Haskins, a three-star junior defensive back who also plays wide receiver, threw for 204 yards and three touchdowns to help the Defenders (5-5) blow out the host Dragons (5-5).
Kamani Barbour caught two of the scoring throws and added a 61-yard punt return TD. Brayden Payne caught the other TD pass. Haskins also had a 1-yard TD run.
Middlesboro 34, Sayre 27: Mekhi Young’s 29-yard pick-six of a Gage Pennington pass on fourth-and-2 with 4:48 left helped seal an undefeated regular season for the Class A No. 7 Yellow Jackets (9-0) over visiting No. 5 Sayre (8-2).
Middlesboro quarterback Deakon Partin gashed the Sayre defense with TD throws of 16 yards to Malachi Coots, 46 yards to Joseph Killion and 57 yards to Amari Houston. Coots also had a 1-yard TD run.
The Spartans got two short-yardage touchdown runs by Pennington and another by Caden Jones to go with a pair of field goals by Gannon Rice.
Conner 41, Henry Clay 34 (OT): The Cougars (4-6) rallied with two touchdowns in the final 1:45 of regulation to take the lead and then got a 12-yard TD pass from Gray Montgomery to Shepherd Dozier in overtime to deny the Blue Devils (1-8) a home win to finish the regular season.
Henry Clay jumped to a 21-0 lead in the first half with TD runs by Isaiah King, Zac Hoellein and Safal Gurung and led 31-19 with 2:57 to play after a 14-yard TD pass from Liam Marrs to Antoine Webb.
But Conner, coached this season by Noel Rash, who led Beechwood to eight state championships in 17 years there, did not go away. The Cougars covered 67 yards in 1:08 to cut their deficit to 31-26 on a 6-yard TD pass from Montgomery to Dozier and then recovered an onside kick to set up a three-play, 47 yard drive in 19 seconds to take a 34-31 lead after Cordion Anthony’s 7-yard TD run with 1:24 to go.
Henry Clay forced overtime, however, as Marrs led a 47-yard drive to set up Kaisean Saunders’ 25-yard field goal to tie the game at 34-34 with one second left.
Lexington Catholic 24, Ashland Blazer 6: Brady Wasik threw two TD passes to Eric Smith and another to Duncan Gaunce and got a 24-yard field goal from Jaelin White to help Class 3A’s media poll No. 4 Knights (8-2) notch a win over a Class 4A opponent on the road.
Other Friday scores: West Jessamine 28, Tates Creek 16; Oldham County 43, Lafayette 13.
Thursday scores: Lexington Christian 49, Pleasure Ridge Park 6; Eastern 27, Paul Laurence Dunbar 6.
