[Stardust]

After suffering through back-to-back losing seasons, the 28 seniors on this year's Boone County football team banded together during the offseason to find a way to leave as winners.

They have done that, but they can accomplish something more significant tonight when Boone County (8-4) plays at Lexington Lafayette (9-3) for the Class 6A, Region 4 championship. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. at Ishmael Stadium.

It's the first regional championship game Boone County has reached since 2008, when it lost to Simon Kenton, and comes just a year after the Rebels went 3-7 and failed to even make the playoffs.

Boone County coach Rick Thompson said it's a credit to those seniors that the team bounced back from last season.

"The thing these seniors have shown was tremendous leadership, and not one or two guys, but a whole group of guys, and there's strength in numbers," said Thompson. "We tweaked some things with our offseason conditioning program, and then talked to them about some changes we were making on the coaching staff, to our offense and to our defense so they knew we were looking into everything we were doing and trying to fix it. The kids had to trust in us and we had to trust the kids and they did. They could have easily tuned us out last winter, but it speaks to the character of seniors and how they handled things."

Perhaps the biggest change came in the team's defensive scheme in going from a four-man front to a 3-3-5 and sometimes 3-5-3 alignment. The Rebels held seven opponents to 14 points or less and five to less than 10 points. They are allowing just 127 yards per game rushing, and that rushing defense will be a key this week against Lafayette tailback William Johnson, who rushed for 480 yards on 62 carries in the Generals first two playoff games.

"At the beginning of spring ball the coaches started showing us the new defense and we all embraced it, because it's all about us coming downhill and being aggressive," said linebacker Mikel Reynolds.

Thompson also moved senior Kameron Schwartz into the lineup at starting quarterback and went to more of a spread attack, but after the Rebels dropped back-to-back games to start the Class 6A district schedule and fall to 4-3, he made one last change by going to the "I" formation and focusing on running.

"We just were not very consistent running the ball and not doing well offensively," said Thompson.

The Rebels rushed for 207 yards in their 28-21 playoff win at Madison Central, then rushed for 219 yards in last week's 14-7 playoff win at Ryle.

"The one thing I told those kids and challenged them in the summer is that at some point they're going to face adversity and people will think when that comes you will fall apart," said Thompson. "I said be prepared for it and pull together. That's what they did after we lost (to fall to 4-3). They've responded to everything we've given them

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