LAPEL — A warm and breezy Saturday set the stage for Lapel’s Saturday homecoming game against Boonville, and despite the team’s strong effort, the Class 4A Pioneers cooled the day with a 36-26 win against the Bulldogs.
“It was a tough loss,” coach Tim Miller said. “There are no moral victories. They beat us.”
But he went on to note that Boonville is in the top 12 of 4A schools in the state.
“I thought we played well and obviously looked better than we had in the last couple weeks,” Miller said.
In the first quarter, junior quarterback Cole Alexander teamed up with senior receiver Justin Engle for a 12-yard pass to put the Bulldogs on the board in the first quarter 6-0 after a failed extra point attempt.
Boonville answered early in the second quarter with a three-yard keeper from quarterback Jackson Phillips. The Pioneers’ two-point conversion failed, and the score was 6-6.
As the clock ticked down to halftime, Alexander hit senior Conner Gill for an 80-yard run to the end zone, giving the Bulldogs a 13-6 lead.
However, on the kickoff, Boonville’s Devin Mockobee returned the ball 84 yards for a score. The Bulldogs led 13-12 at halftime.
But the rest of the game belonged to Boonville, and mostly to Pioneer running back Luke Conner.
In its opening drive, Boonville started on its own 40, and for the next four plays, Phillips handed off to Conner to get the Pioneers into Bulldog territory. Conner got a break on the next play, but on the sixth play of the drive, he took the ball in from the 10-yard line. Boonville was successful with the conversion, taking the lead 20-13.
“That kid’s a beast,” Miller said. “He’s going to be playing on Saturdays somewhere next year.”
Conner had 237 yards rushing against the Bulldogs.
“I think for the most part, we kept them contained, even though we gave up 36 points,” Miller said.
Lapel senior Josiah Scott got in on a one-yard run to tie the score at 20.
Following the score, in one of the more interesting sets of downs in the game, Boonville started on its own 41-yard line. Conner made a 17-yard run for the first down, but two penalties called on Lapel advanced the ball to the Bulldog 11. Two plays later, the Pioneers were on the 2, but a holding call put them back to the 14. They went for it on fourth-and-12, but the pass was no good.
However, Lapel was called for roughing the passer, and the ball went back to the 6-yard line. Phillips scored on a keeper, and the Pioneers made good on the conversion to drive the score to 28-20 late in the third quarter.
Both Boonville and Lapel scored in the fourth quarter, but Lapel’s attempt to catch the Pioneers was thwarted when Bulldog Alexander was intercepted by Boonville’s Conner at the 2-yard line with just a little over two minutes remaining in the game.
While Alexander had two interceptions for the game, he still passed for 306 yards. Gill accounted for 126 receiving yards, while junior Charlie Prough had 89.
“I think we’re headed in the right direction,” Miller said. “We got better. We just need to get a little better.”
The Bulldogs fell to 2-3 and will play host to the 3-2 Rushville Lions at 7 p.m. Sept. 21.
Rushville will test the Bulldog defense with running back Cameron Craig, who is averaging 161 yards rushing this season.
