Western Boone Jr. - Sr. High School

Western Boone knew that Friday night's sectional semifinal against Southmont was going to be a battle of the trenches. Both teams came in with strong rushing attacks, averaging more than 250 yards a game, and were very familiar with what the other team planned on doing. And while Western Boone hung tough in the first half, leading 3-0 at the intermission, they couldn't sustain it in second half and Southmont pulled away for a 33-11 win. "We hung in there for a half," Western Boone head coach Justin Pelley said. "The bottom line is they stopped our running back and we couldn't stop theirs. That was the difference." Western Boone was held to 150 yards of offense in the game, and just 42 on the ground. After a turnover and a punt on their first two possessions, they capitalized on a short field to get a 23-yard field goal from Ben Fortner to take an early lead in the second quarter. But in the second half, Southmont needed just eight plays for go 68 yards and take a 6-3 lead. WeBo drove inside the Southmont 40, but turned it over on downs. Southmont took advantage, scoring right before the end of the quarter to go up 12-3, and then after a WeBo punt, scored with 9:00 to play to make it 19-3. freestar "Our defense played really well in the first half," Pelley said. "Then they started hitting hitting the outside a little bet and then back inside - then it was kind of attrition after that. They wore us down a little bit." Western Boone got back within eight when Brennan Kopriva conencted with Sheets for a touchdown pass with 6:51 to play. But the Mounties got momentum right back, scoring on the ensuing possession and then capping it off with a pick-6. Kopriva was 8 of 16 for 102 yards. Jake Smith was held to 23 yards rushing. The Stars finish the season 6-5. "We faced a lot of adversity this year," Pelley said. "We had a lot of kids dropping off one way or another and had to come together as a group. We had to rely on a bunch of younger kids, and they never hung their heads and kept going. I'm proud of them for that because it's hard to do and it would be easy to point the finger and they didn't do that." Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.