Western Boone Jr. - Sr. High School

Week by week, the Western Boone defense has been improving. That was extremely evident on Friday night when they traveled to North Montgomery for the sectional semifinal. In mid-September when the two teams met, the Stars allowed 32 points, and left the game allowing more than 30 points a game. Friday, they pitched their third shutout since that Week 5 game, forced five turnovers and walked away with a 35-0 win. "Our defense has been improving every week and really has been our rock," Western Boone head coach Justin Pelley said. "They have been getting stops and turnovers and are confident in what they are doing and the places they're in. Our offense did fine tonight too, and when you add that with forcing turnovers and getting stops, you are going to win a lot of football games." The Stars set the tone on the opening drive of the game. Taking the opening kickoff, Western Boone marched 75 yards in 15 plays, converting two fourth downs and scoring on a 20-yard run by Levi Adkins. "I think that really set the tone for us," Pelley said. "It was a seven or eight minute drive, and got a couple of fourth downs, and sometimes a drive like that is better than a fast score. You can run clock, keep their offense off the field and run them down a little bit. That was a really telling drive. We told the kids before the game that we could dominate this game if we do what we're supposed to do, just get a few yards a play and not get greedy." Then it became the Nate Thompson show. First he scored on a 9-yard run to make it 14-0 with 5:32 left in the half. After a turnover, Thompson added another touchdown, this time on a 30-yard reception from Quinn Westerfeld to make it 20-0 with 2:00 to play in the half. In the third quarter, Thompson had an interception to end a North Montgomery promising North Montgomery drive. "Nate does some good things for us," Pelley said. "We are just trying to get our guys in space, and we were able to do that tonight and he broke loose a couple times. We had great pass protection tonight and Quinn threw it well too. It was tough sledding in the running game because they were putting eight or nine guys in the box, so we had to spread it around a little bit." Westerfeld scored from 9-yards out in the third quarter, and fittingly found Thompson from 16-yards out in the fourth quarter to get the running clock started. Western Boone will now face Tri-West for the sectional championship. The game will be at Tri-West at 7 p.m. on Friday. The Bruins won the season opener 42-20. "They are a good team," Pelley said. "Defensively, schematically, they put you in binds. Their quarterback is really good, and can run, throw, whatever you try to do they will do the opposite. So we have to be sound all over the place. We are settling into that a little bit right now. You want to be playing your best football in November, we get to play a game in November and that's the goal every year." Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on X @Will_Willems.