Trick play spurs Boyle County shutout of Franklin County in Class 4A finals
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- Boyle County executed a fake field goal to a 22-yard TD, seizing momentum.
- Boyle County defense shut down Franklin County, allowing 92 total yards.
- Ji’Dyn Smith-Hisel rushed for 183 yards, finishing season with 1,792 yards.
It took one daring play for Boyle County to turn a grinding slog of a Class 4A state championship game on Friday at Kroger Field into a Rebels’ rout to bring their 13th crown to Title Town.
Grant Klosterman lined up for what looked like a 39-yard field goal attempt to end the second quarter.
Instead, holder Baylor Murphy stood up as soon as he got the snap, double-clutched and lofted a pass downfield to 6-foot-7 junior tight end Seneca Driver for a 22-yard touchdown to help Boyle County take a 14-0 lead and a huge surge of momentum into the locker room at halftime.
Franklin County’s misfortune compounded from there as the Rebels’ defense helped Boyle County pull away to a 34-0 win in the Class 4A UK HealthCare Sports Medicine State Football Finals championship game.
Murphy, the Rebels’ starting quarterback all of last season, got hurt in a Week 2 loss at Lexington Catholic and last threw in a game against Russell County on Oct. 10. Boyle County coach Justin Haddix indicated a field goal was the initial plan with six seconds left till the break.
“Looking at it, we didn’t like it, so we called timeout and ended up sneaking Baylor in,” Haddix said. “Hats off to him. I don’t know if he ever ran that play in practice for what we did. … Baylor did a great job of holding in there and gave (Driver) a chance to make a play.”
In Driver’s sprint downfield, he bowled over one defender and caught the pass between two others right at the goal line. He wasn’t sure how the trick play was going to work either.
“I just had to trust the play call and trust that Baylor was going to get me the ball,” Driver said.
The win gave Boyle County its fifth Class 4A title in the six years since Haddix took over the program. But their head-scratching 17-7 loss to Lexington Catholic on Sept. 5 and narrow victories over Lexington Christian, Highlands and Frederick Douglass, along with last week’s 34-33 nail-biter against Corbin, made a shutout against Class 4A’s highest scoring team at 46.1 points per game seem unlikely.
“On the bus ride back from the Lexington Catholic game, I doubt many people thought we’d be here right now,” Haddix said. “It just talks to the character of these kids. We continued to push them, and they believed and just got better and better each week.”
Boyle County senior running back Ji’Dyn Smith-Hisel exemplified the Rebels’ mindset. A 5-foot-6 scout-team player for the Rebels during his first three seasons, Smith-Hisel rushed for a game-high 183 yards and two touchdowns against Franklin County to help him reach 1,792 yards and 18 TDs rushing on the season.
Smith-Hisel broke TD runs of 23 yards and 50 yards in the fourth quarter.
“I think what makes this year special is that nobody gave us a chance in a game,” Smith-Hisel said. “Throughout the whole playoffs from Round 3 on, they thought we were going to lose. When you look at our team in warmups, nobody really thinks we’re going to be the most dominant team on the field. But we are.”
Driver added a pair of rushing touchdowns as he took direct snaps from center.
Boyle County’s defense held Franklin County to only 92 yards of total offense and turned the Flyers over on downs on their last four second-half possessions. Franklin County had negative yardage on four of its eight possessions in the game. Despite those numbers, the Flyers kept the game close until the field-goal fake.
“We made some mistakes early, and they had the momentum,” Franklin County coach Eddie James said. “We talked about catching momentum early and we weren’t able to do that. When you get behind and you’re playing a team like that, that snowballs. And it did tonight.”
The loss marked the Flyers’ second straight state runner-up finish under James and third overall. Boyle topped Franklin 31-28 in overtime in 2020. Paducah Tilghman beat the Flyers 27-20 last season.
“This wasn’t easy,” James said. “We lost 17 seniors from last year. Just to get back to this point is a testament to them. … Obviously, we wanted a different result tonight, but it wasn’t for a lack of their effort.”
This story was originally published December 6, 2025 at 2:19 AM.
