Lot of high level players to watch when Boyle County hosts Lexington Christian Saturday

Boyle quarterback Jager Gillis returned for a do-over year and has already picked up a scholarship offer from UAB. (Chris Zollner Photo)

Saturday night’s early season showdown between Lexington Christian Academy and Boyle County will feature a lot of high-level players. Boyle, the defending Class 4A champion, opened the season with a win over Tates Creek and Saturday’s game will be its home opener.

The Rebels are led by fifth-year quarterback Jager Gillis. He threw for 2,037 yards and 25 touchdowns in 2020 before deciding to repeat his senior season. He also ran for 415 yards and four touchdowns. In last week’s win, he completed 13 of 18 passes for 119 yards and two scores to Cole Lanter, who had eight catches for 86 yards.

“Last year he kind of just fit in. This year he is more of a leader,” Haddix said. “He is a guy who plays on both sides of the ball because he is old school and hard-nosed. He is just a football player and he wants to play defense.

“He throws the ball really well. He’s only had one year in our system and did not really get the full experience last year. He wanted to play at a higher level than Campbellsville and he has picked up some offers already. He just needs to go out and have a great year and he got off to a good start.”

Boyle also features kicker Jackson Smith, a Kentucky commit. He was 4-for-4 on extra points and 1-for-2 on field goals last week but he also started on defense at linebacker where he had four tackles.

Another Rebel with a UK offer — as well as a lot of others — is junior defensive end Tommy Ziesmer. He had five tackles last week.

“Tommy had a great summer at camps. At 6-3, 240 pounds her ran a 4.65 (second 40-yard dash) at Ohio State and jumped 39 inches at the West Virginia camp. He is just a freak and hopefully is going to have a great junior season,” Boyle coach Justin Haddix said.

“He is very physical with his hands. Most young guys play timid. He just turned 16 and still has some maturing to do. But he set a power clean record of 320 pounds and also bench pressed 300 pounds. He has a 6-8 wingspan. He has long arms. All that is why he has so many committable (college) offers.”

Lexington Christian beat Madison Central 21-12 last week and has a lot of big-time players led by Virginia commit Xavier Brown. He’s a threat both running and receiving. He rushed for 449 yards and eight touchdowns in 2020 and had 877 yards and nine touchdowns receiving.

Quarterback Drew Nieves threw touchdown passes of 27 and 20 yards to Mason Moore last week. Nieves, a junior, led the Eagles to the Class 2A state title game last season and, like Gillis, is taking a do-over year. He passes for 2,651 yards and 28 touchdowns in 2020 — the best marks in Class 2A — and ran for 466 yards and six more scores.

LCA’s only losses last year were to Class 5A power Frederick Douglass during the regular season and Beechwood in the state title game. LCA returned 18 starters.

Moore, a receiver/safety, is a Miami (Ohio) commit and the son of former UK/NFL linebacker Marty Moore. He led LCA with 957 yards and 11 touchdowns receiving last season and had 43 tackles and five interceptions, including two he returned for touchdowns. He averaged over 19 yards per reception.

LCA also has its own potent kicker in senior Andrew Dobbs, who kicked a game-winning field goal against Lexington Catholic last year. Like Jackson, he regularly puts kickoffs deep into the end zone. He made 11 field goals in 2020.

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Tickets to the game go on sale online Friday at 10 a.m. at this link: https://boylekyschools.hometownticketing.com/embed/all.