The game looked as though it might be a track meet in the first half.

Both the Bourbon County Colonels and Scott Eagles scored on their first and third possessions of the game. But after that, it was all Colonels as their athleticism took over to plow their way to a 55-22 win in Taylor Mill on Scott’s Homecoming Game.

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“First and foremost, we got stuck behind an hour-long parade so when I finally got here, 10 minutes after seven, they were fired up for me. We walked down the hill. They knew what time it was,” said Tyquan Rice, Bourbon County head coach. “I told the defensive line, ‘Go hunt.’ That’s a testament to the senior leadership. Here’s the thing. You can say front four. You can say secondary because we knew going in that this team could throw the ball. But if our defense shows up, we’re a different team. There’s a lot of good teams in (Class) 3A. But if our guys will trust, if the people surrounding our guys will trust us as coaches and them as players, the sky’s the limit. We put in an entirely new defense in four days and they were disciplined enough to run it.”

Bourbon County stayed undefeated at 5-0 with its highest point total of the season, taking advantage of its athleticism on both sides of the ball. The Colonels led 28-14 at halftime then pulled away with 27 points in the third quarter to enforce the running clock. The game turned official with 7:11 left in the game when the lights at the stadium turned off.

Senior Malachi Rennie once again led the balanced Bourbon County spread offense. Rennie completed 10-of-17 passes to four different wide receivers for 170 yards, three touchdowns and one interception and rushed for 80 yards on seven carries and one touchdown. Tanner Lutz had 75 yards on six carries and a touchdown.

Speedster Jacob Ezell led the Colonels with 108 yards receiving on three catches and Bryson Carr had four receptions for 22 yards. Myles Heilig had a 27-yard touchdown catch and Fred Carson returned a punt 59 yards for the score.

“We knew we were going to have some problems with their skill players,” Scott head coach Justin Franklin said. “This is a different Bourbon team that we scheduled – a lot of transfers coming in from Paris. That coach has a much bigger staff, much better operation. I’m not surprised we were hanging with them early. (Leading receiver) Aaron Hampton went down. We dropped a couple passes. Things just started to not go our way. At that point, we’re just trying to keep a positive mindset for our guys.”

Aaron Hampton received news Saturday morning that he would miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury. He also led the basketball team in points and rebounds last season.

Both teams rushed the ball 22 times. The Colonels collectively outrushed the Eagles, 204-62 for averages of between nine and 10 yards to between two to three yards per carry.

The Eagles had to go to the air trailing from the second quarter on. Quarterback Trey Cook completed 10-of-28 yards for 139 yards with three touchdown passes and one interception. Justin Hardy had three catches for a team-high 61 yards for Scott.

“I just want to give a big shout out to our defensive ends,” Bourbon County junior lineman Bryant Martin said. “They really did a good job at containing the edge and really make (Cook) bounce back inside for us to get the tackle.”

Bourbon County led 14-7 after the first quarter. On the second play from scrimmage, Ezell burned the Eagles on a go route for 58 yards and Gavin Thompson made the point-after touchdown to put the Colonels up 7-0 just 53 seconds into the game.

“We got a lot of speed on our team so the deep game opened up because we could outrun them,” Ezell said. “We have a great quarterback. It puts a lot of pressure on the defense because if you make one single mistake, we are going to be in the crib. We got a lot of weapons on our team and we can score in many different ways so it’s very difficult.”

After Scott tied it when Cook hit Luke Tomlin for a 28-yard touchdown pass, Myles Heilig hauled in a 27-yard touchdown pass from Rennie two possessions later. The Colonels drove to the Scott 6 on their second possession, but turned it over on downs when a 4th-and-goal pass failed from the 9.

The Eagles drove into Bourbon County and tied it with 11:47 left in the second quarter. Hardy got behind the Colonels defense for a 43-yard touchdown reception and Jaxon Morgan tied it with the PAT.

Special teams play gave the Colonels a boost in building the halftime lead. After Bourbon County took the lead for good at 20-14 when Shayne Bowling scored from five yards out, Carson returned a punt 42 yards to the Scott 7. Two plays later, Carr scored from five yards out and Rennie hit Bowling for the two-point conversion with 5:30 left in the half.

The onslaught came in third quarter after the Scott offense gained one first down on the second half’s opening possession and had to punt. Rennie ran a read play and broke free on the right side for a 67-yard run to put the Colonels up 35-14.

Bourbon County kept the momentum up on Scott’s next possession when Carr intercepted Cook giving the Colonels the ball at their own 38. He ultimately scored on a 20-yard touchdown reception from Rennie to give Bourbon County a 41-14 advantage with 5:54 left in the quarter.

“Last week, (Montgomery County) just kept pounding us down the middle and then this week, I think they were pretty scored to run it down the middle so they just passed and I don’t think that worked for them,” Carr said. “(Cook) is a great player. He’s quick. Every time I would try to chase him, he would outrun me. But I think our (teammates) did well to tackle him.”

The Colonels scored their final two touchdown with under five minutes left in the third quarter. Lutz scored from seven yards on the left side on a counter play and Carson then had his punt return for a score.

Scott ended the run with its final touchdown with 7:41 left in the game. Cook found Jayden Dodd for the score with 7:41 left in the game and Cook ran in the two-point conversion.

“(The Bourbon County defensive ends) were so strong and angled in,” Franklin said. “We like to get Trey out of the box and rolling or spring him out. (Bourbon County junior) King Lee and that 34 (junior Dontez Hocker) over there are just so big and physical and our tackles aren’t the quickest. We tried to double the edge and they would still beat it up. They also had a nice adjustment there where they would bring the defensive tackle down on the guard and widening the defensive end out and he would wait for the roll.”

Bourbon County hosts Henry County (2-2) on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Scott (2-2) will try to rebound at home against Dixie Heights in a county rivalry game at 7 p.m.

Bourbon County 14 14 27 0 | 55
Scott 7 7 0 8 | 22

First Quarter
BC – Jacob Ezell, 58-yard pass from Malachi Rennie (Gavin Thompson kick), 11:07 7-0
S – Luke Tomlin, 29-yard pass from Trey Cook (Jaxon Morgan kick), 10:10 7-7
BC – Myles Heilig, 27-yard pass from Rennie (Thompson kick), 2:17 14-7

Second Quarter
S – Justin Hardy, 43-yard pass from Cook (Morgan kick), 11:51 14-14
BC — Shayne Bowling, 5-yard run (kick failed), 8:33 20-14
BC — Bryson Carr, 5-yard run (Bowling, pass from Rennie), 5:30 28-14

Third Quarter
BC — Rennie, 63-yard run (Thompson kick), 8:11 35-14
BC — Carr, 20-yard pass from Rennie (run failed), 5:54 41-14
BC — Tanner Lutz, 7-yard run (Thompson kick), 4:06 48-14
BC — Fred Carson, 59-yard punt return (Thompson kick), 3:15 55-14

Fourth Quarter
S – Jayden Dodd, 3-yard pass from Cook (Cook run), 7:41 55-22

Rushing: BC (22-204) Malachi Rennis (7-80), Tanner Lutz (6-75), Bryson Carr (4-31), Shayne Bowling (2-8), Jacob Ezell (1-7), Carson Mitchell (1-6), Myles Heilig (1-5). S (22-62) Luke Tomlin (10-34), Trey Cook (11-28), Justin Hardy (1-0).

Passing: BC Malachi Rennie (10-17-1-170). S Trey Cook (10-28-1-139).

Receiving: BC (10-170) Bryson Carr (4-22), Jacob Ezell (3-108), Myles Heilig (2-35), Quinton Rice (1-5). S (10-139) Justin Hardy (3-61), Jayden Dodd (3-16), Peyton Zinser (2-26), Luke Tomlin (1-29), Peyton Feller (1-7).