Western Boone Jr. - Sr. High School

The Western Boone football team has been waiting for a performance like Friday night. The Stars put together strong performances on offense and defense and shutout Frankfort 49-0 to improve to 4-2 on the season. "Our kids played to our potential tonight, and that's all we talked about all week long," Western Boone head coach Justin Pelley said. "We didn't care what they were going to do, we were focused on what we are capable of doing and we haven't done that. The last three weeks, we let teams back in games, and we didn't do that tonight." Pelley said that while Frankfort came in with a 0-5 record, they have been showing progress under first-year head coach Andy Dudley. And picking up their first shutout of the season was a big deal for the Stars. "They have some good kids, and they have put up some points this year, and played some people better than they have in the past," Pelley said. "We had to make sure that we weren't content tonight and I was really happy we weren't. Our JV played the entire second half, and they were able to keep a 0 on the board, which is hard to do, going a whole half against a varsity team with juniors and seniors in there." The Stars got 191 yards rushing and three touchdowns from Jack Mallory and another 31 and two scores from Rolen Shue. Western Boone rushed for more than nine yards a carry in the game. "We had short drives tonight, so we didn't have to interchange them as much during drives," Pelley said. "It was a team effort and both of them did really well when their number was called." Even with the game decided the Stars remained focus on execution. After a Shue touchdown made it 34-0, a bad snap on the extra point led to a scramble drill. But kicker Benson DeVol didn't panic and connected with Josiah Williamson for the two-point try. "I was watching our line at the time, because we have a lot of young guys there, and I hear the whole sideline yelling, 'fire, fire, fire,' which means something happened," Pelley said. "Then I see our kicker running for his life back there and he threw it as high as he could and let Josiah go get it. That was a heady play by Benson Devol and he made all his kicks tonight." Western Boone is back in action against Southmont next week. Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on X @Will_Willems.