Lexington Catholic

East Jessamine softball's eight-game win streak came to an end Monday night Lexington Catholic. The Lady Jaguars lost to the Lady Knights 8-3. East was in the game through the first four innings despite being down 3-0, but things got out of hand quickly in the fifth as the three-run lead ballooned to an 8-0 blowout. “Haylee (Hamm) had a rough night; it was her worst night as a varsity starter,” East Jessamine coach Tom Hamm said. “She just had an off night.” The Lady Jags didn't get on the board untill the top of the sixth inning.

Had the season ended Monday, Lexington Catholic would have been the No. 1 seed heading into the 27th District tournament, but West Jessamine's 2-0 upset of the Knights on Tuesday night shakes things up a little bit. “This is a huge win,” West coach Brock Sutherland said. “We've been struggling; we've won one of our last six games with two tough losses in the district at our place. To come in here ... and to beat them is just a huge win for us. It can change our confidence and turn our season around.” West Jessamine (6-5-1)

STANFORD - Jack Whitman had a game-high 30 points and 12 rebounds and Tanner Johnson poured in 25 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead the way for  Lexington Catholic as the Knights topped host Lincoln County 90-76 Tuesday. Lexington Catholic didn't need much defense to earn the win, as it shot 65.3 percent from the field. The Knights went 32 for 49, with Whitman, a 6-9 senior, going 11 for 13 from the field and Johnson, a sophomore, going 8 for 13, including hitting five of nine shots from 3-point range.

Boyle County has a six-game winning streak against Lexington Catholic going into Friday's Class AAAA, District 5 showdown Friday at Rebel Stadium. But that is ancient history for Boyle coach Larry French, who noted that Lexington Catholic, which is sitting at 5-1 at No. 3¿in the class, returns almost everyone from last year's squad “This is a new year and a new game. We feel our kids are playing pretty well, and it's very evident Lexington Catholic is playing well,” said French, whose Boyle team is 4-2 and No. 4 in AAAA¿this week.

It would have been a valuable victory, and it could have been a disappointing defeat. Instead, it was something in between. The Boyle County girls couldn't get the win they craved over Lexington Catholic, but they were able to come from behind late in the game to salvage a 2-2 tie Tuesday night at Rebel Stadium. Kennedy Collier and Natalie Settle scored in the final 15 minutes as No. 7 Boyle rallied from a 2-0 deficit to avoid what would have been its first loss in more than a month.

LEXINGTON - Boyle County came into Friday's Class AAAA regional final at Lexington Catholic averaging 227 yards rushing per game with 36 touchdowns. The Rebels had 193 yards rushing in the teams' first meeting earlier in the season. However, the Rebels could do little on the ground Friday, rushing for just 131 yards on 40 carries and fumbling the ball away twice in a 10-7 loss to the Knights. Devon Cox ran for 61 yards on 19 carries after averaging 99 yards per game with 16 touchdowns in Boyle's first 12 games.

LEXINGTON — Boyle County gave Lexington Catholic a glimmer of hope very early Friday, then took it away and proceeded to dominate the Knights. Boyle ran up 508 yards, scored 14 points off three turnovers and handed Lexington Catholic a 42-10 trouncing in the teams’ Class AAAA, District 6 opener. “We like to stick together and we like to get to the ball together and that’s what we do, get 11 heads to the ball. That’s how we win,” said senior end Ryan Wilson, part of a Boyle defense that held Catholic to 42 yards rushing and 173 yards total.

Boyle County dropped a 25-20, 25-18 decision to Lexington Catholic Monday night at Lexington. "The girls played well tonight," Boyle coach Dana Stigall said. "We were missing one of our starters, and they were still able to come together and give Lexington Catholic a good match. Losses are always disappointing, but we played well. " "We have a tough schedule, and that's what's going to make us stronger down the road. " Stephanie Slone had four kills and Holly Carter had three service aces for Boyle (3-4-1)

STANFORD - Jack Whitman had a game-high 30 points and 12 rebounds and Tanner Johnson poured in 25 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead the way for  Lexington Catholic as the Knights topped host Lincoln County 90-76 Tuesday. Lexington Catholic didn't need much defense to earn the win, as it shot 65.3 percent from the field. The Knights went 32 for 49, with Whitman, a 6-9 senior, going 11 for 13 from the field and Johnson, a sophomore, going 8 for 13, including hitting five of nine shots from 3-point range.

LEXINGTON - Lincoln County hoped to hand Lexington Catholic a home loss Friday, but the Lady Knights stood their ground to turn back the Lady Patriots 60-55. Lincoln (6-2) had the points it needed to win from the field, connecting on 23 of 50 shot attempts, including three 3-pointers for 49 points while Lexington Catholic was just 14-for-39 from the field, with six treys for 34 points.  But the Lady Knights (4-4) outshot the Lady Patriots at the free throw line to claim victory, sinking 26 shots on 28 trips to the charity stripe compared to Lincoln's 6-for-9 effort.

LEXINGTON - Boyle County was pitching a shutout in the first half Friday night against Lexington Catholic, but the second half belonged to the Knights. Lexington Catholic scored the final 27 points of the game, all in the second half, to rally past the Rebels 27-16 in the Class AAAA, Region 4 final. The Knights (11-2) scored on the first four possessions of the second half, and had the ball at Boyle's 15-yard line when the game ended as they won their fourth straight game against the Rebels (8-5)

Even with a new quarterback at the helm, it's the same old Lexington Catholic that Boyle County will be facing in the Class AAAA, Region 3 final Friday in Lexington. Sophomore Reese Ryan took over for the injured Kyle Bolin during the Knight's 24-21 win over Boyle on Sept. 28. And Boyle coach Larry French said there is really no difference in the Knights with Ryan at quarterback. “He's in the same offense with the same people in front of him. He's handing off to the same people. There's not a lot of difference in them,”¿French said.

Meagan Smith of Danville took second out of 157 runners Saturday in the Class A-AA race at the Lexington Catholic Invitational at the Kentucky Horse Park. Smith finished in 19:20.68, six seconds behind Karly Gawarecki of Louisville Holy Cross. In the boys Class A-AA race, Garrard County's Cole Grecco finished 15th in a time of 17 minutes, 21.01 seconds. Lincoln County's Brian Carlson was 15th in the Class AAA race, finishing in a time of 16 minutes, 50.2 seconds. Woodford County Invitational - At Versailles, Boyle County's Nikki Coffey finished sixth in 19 minutes, 59.89, while Mercer County's Taylor Gray finished 13th in 21:12.14 at the Woodford County Invitational.

Larry French doesn't want to make two trips to Lexington this season. But perhaps the only way for French and Boyle County to avoid that is for the Rebels to score a victory at rival Lexington Catholic on Friday in a key district contest. “With both of us in the same district, that gets home field advantage in the playoffs if you end up beating one another,”¿French, the Boyle coach, said. “That's our goal for Friday night is to try and get home-field advantage. “If we can upset Catholic, that's the ultimate goal.

HARRODSBURG - Mercer County was trying to shock the world, but the Titans couldn't generate enough power to pull it off. The Titans led Lexington Catholic for most of three quarters Friday night, trying to hang on for what would have been an attention-getting upset of the No. 3-ranked team in Class AAAA. But they couldn't sustain the momentum they had gained by getting the jump on their opponent, and the Knights scored 20 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to rally for a 34-16 victory in the district opener for both teams.

It all came down to a couple of mistakes for West Jessamine on Tuesday night as the Colts fell to Lexington Catholic 2-1. West took an early 1-0 lead against the Knights as David Hogan hit a corner kick into the box and Sam Brown got a head on the ball to drive it into the net the with just over 4 minutes gone by in the game. It looked like West would hold and perhaps even add on to its lead for the next 25 minutes, but the Colts allowed a goal with 34 seconds remaining in the half to shift momentum over to the Knights and go into halftime tied 1-1. “It was just a bone-headed mistake to give up a goal with 34 seconds before half,” West Jessamine coach Brock Sutherland said.