RYLE 27, BOONE COUNTY 13

By Ryan Suckow | NKYSportsBlog.com
Ryle quarterback Nathan Davis rushed for four touchdowns in the Raiders 27-13 win over Boone County Friday night.

It was homecoming for the Raiders and the men in orange held serve as they protected their home field with a big win over a district foe to go 2-0 in Class 6A play. The Raiders kept it on the ground and ran all over the Boone County defense that could not figure out how to stop Davis.

Davis has done an admiral job as Ryle’s main offensive component since the loss of running back Travis Elliott, and he continued to impress Friday. While the offense opened up throwing the ball, Davis and the Ryle offense switched gears in the middle of the first quarter and went to the ground game. It proved to be a good decision as Davis got the Raiders into the end zone with a 16-yard scramble to give Ryle the early 6-0 lead.

Early in the second quarter, Davis showed off his dynamic play-making ability with an impressive run from 41-yards out that ended with another six points on the board to increase their lead over the Rebels to 13-0.

Meanwhile, the Boone County offense was stagnant. Rebel quarterback Kameron Schwartz continued to handoff to running backs Cody Rodriguez and Drew Stuck, but to no avail. The stingy Ryle defense bottled up the Boone County running game, the same offense that ran wild just a week earlier against Dixie.

Davis added his third touchdown of the first half with a late nine-yard scamper to the endzone to give the Raiders a 20-0 lead at half.

The second half was a similar story for Boone County. They had opportunities to cut the score after Ryle turned it over deep in their own territory, but the Rebels could not capitalize and walked away without any points on the board as Ryle’s defense continued to stuff the run. The Rebels did manage a scoring drive late in the fourth quarter as they cut the lead to 20-7 on a 13-yard Schwartz pass to Denzel Cain. Schwartz finished just 4 of 18 for 61 yards as the Rebels struggled to move the ball all night.

Ryle (4-2 overall, 2-0 Class 6A, District 6) put it into cruise control as the second half wore on and Boone held them to just 26 yards. The Raiders did put another score on the board though when Boone turned the ball over on downs on their own one-yard line. After taking a big hit to the head in Ryle’s previous possession, Davis reentered the game, scurried to the right, and found a seam to reach the end zone for his fourth touchdown of the night.

Davis finished with 175 yards on 25 carries to go with his four scores, and he went 6-10 for 64 yards through the air. He led his offense to 247 first-half yards, while the defense held Boone County to 76 yards of offense in the first three quarters. Boone County finished with 194 total yards, racking up 118 yards in the final quarter of the game.

Boone County mounted another 84-yard touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter to make the score 27-13 after the game was already out of hand.

With the win, Ryle moves into a first-place tie with Dixie atop Northern Kentucky’s district with a 2-0 record. Boone County moves to 4-3 and is now 0-2 in the district after suffering losses to Ryle and Dixie.
Ryan Suckow is a beat writer for NKYSportsBlog.com, an official content partner of TriStateFootball.com. If you are interested in covering your team, please CONTACT US.