Western Boone Jr. - Sr. High School

LIZTON - Western Boone football coach Justin Pelley knows that against good teams, you can't dig yourself an early hole. But that's exactly what his Class 3A No. 4 Stars did on Friday night when they traveled to Class 3A No. 9 Tri-West. The Bruins jumped out to a 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter, and while the Stars battled back to tie the game on multiple occasions, they never led and ultimately lost 41-34. 'You aren't going to beat those guys turning it over early or giving up big plays," Pelley said. "The first four series, we weren't ready and you aren't going to win like that." The Bruins took control from the opening kick-off, marching 64 yards in 11 plays before scoring on a 10-yard run from Davon Brown. Three plays into the Stars' opening series they fumbled on their own 36, and the Bruins scored on the very next play on a 36-yard pass from Ty Owens to Jeff Marsh to make it 14-0 less than seven minutes into the game. "Generally we are ready to go and we didn't do anything different," Pelley said. "Some kids are just wired to be ready to play and I don't know if it was nerves or what it was. We have guys who have been in big games before, and some who haven't. We just weren't ready and we have to learn from these experiences." The Stars did come back in the first half. After their second drive was extended thanks to a roughing the punter penalty, WeBo got on the board with a 13-yard run from Rowen Durbin. After getting a three-and-out on defense, the Stars marched 74 yards in 11 plays, scoring on a 1-yard Ryan Taylor run to tie the game midway through the second quarter. Tri-West went on a lengthy drive themselves, taking the lead on a 2-yard run from Owens with less than two minutes left in the half and carried that lead into the break. "Our teams got heart and they aren't going to quit," Pelley said. "They showed that tonight. We marched down, and had chances in the second half, the ball just didn't bounce our way tonight and that's on us because we didn't cause the ball to bounce our way. There were just some timely plays that didn't help us out." Neither team could score on their opening drive of the second half, but then the shootout started. First, WeBo capped a 6-play, 72-yard drive with a 1-yard run by Durbin to tie the game at 21. Five plays later, the Bruins reclaimed the lead when Owens found Marsh for a 34-yard touchdown on fourth-and-7. WeBo bounced right back, getting big runs from Trevor Weakley and Ethan Bayles to set up Durbin's third score of the night, this time from 2 yards out. But again, the Stars couldn't sustain the momentum, and Owens scored three plays later on a 53-yard run to make it 35-28. Owens finished the 11 of 16 for 162 yards in the air, and added a 122 yards rushing. "Their quarterback throws the ball really well and showed he could run tonight," Pelley said. "That's tough for us to replicate in practice, but we are pretty good too. I'm disappointed, I think we had a chance to win that game tonight, we just didn't play well enough to win it." It looked like Tri-West had sealed the game after forcing a WeBo three-and-out, then going 46 yards in three plays to score on a 1-yard run by Brown with 7:13 left to go up 41-28. WeBo made one last run for it. Durbin rushed for his fourth touchdown of the night on a 4-yard run to cut the lead to 41-34 with 2:07 to play after a missed extra point. Tri-West recovered the onside kick, but after a three-and-out, tried a fake punt that WeBo snuffed out on their own 47. The Stars tried a trick-play pass on first down to Taylor, but he couldn't control the ball going to ground and it was incomplete. An incompletion and two scrambles later ended the game. "If we hang on to that, we have the ball on the 25 and can run our offense," Pelley said. "But that was one of the bounces that didn't go our way." Weakley had 27 carries for 180 yards. Bayles added 55 yards rushing. Durbin was 2-for-6 for 28 yards passing, but added 83 yards rushing. The Stars, now 3-1 and 1-1 in the conference, host North Montgomery next week. The Chargers lost to Lebanon on Friday night. "We have to play smart football," Pelley said. "We just ran out of bounds on the final play and didn't give ourselves a chance. We aren't playing very smart football right now, and that has to change." Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.