HIGH SCHOOL-KENTUCKY

Rebels in middle of hot streak

James Weber
jweber@communitypress.com

FLORENCE – Before, during, and after a game, Paige Mersmann likes to be in the middle of the action.

After she and her Boone County girls soccer teammates dispatched district rival Cooper Sept. 23, she was front and center as the Rebels moved the soccer goals off the field surface. She went directly to the middle of the crossbar to support the goal’s center of gravity and direct traffic.

Mersmann and Skylar Lehmkuhl are the only seniors on a young Rebels squad.

“She’s always in the middle of everything. That’s how it goes,” said head coach Mike Hughes. “Paige is a good leader on the field. She’s a great player who covers from one side of the other. She’s unselfish. Skylar is a four-year starter and brings speed on the outside. They bring a lot of things to the table.”

The seniors have led a team that is peaking at the right time after sweeping all three of its county/school district/33rd District rivals in a seven-day span. The Rebels’ win over Cooper, 8-0, clinched the top seed in the district tournament and earned the teams a rematch in the semifinals. That followed a 4-2 win over Conner and 3-2 over Ryle as the Rebels got some revenge for the Raider win in last year’s district tourney final.

“We played really well as a team,” Mersmann said. “At the beginning of the season, we started out a little shaky but recently we’ve been playing together as a team and getting things done. I think we’re on the right track for districts.”

Mersmann has been a leader on offense with six goals and 10 assists for the Rebels, who were 8-5-2 entering play on Sept. 28. Junior Peyton Black has 10 goals and seven assists. Freshman Ryielan Hamilton has nine goals and four assists, and Lehmkuhl three goals and two assists. Two of Lehmkuhl’s goals came in the three district games, as Boone outscored its opponents 15-4 with that quartet providing the bulk of the scoring.

“This past week we finally are getting everybody back healthy,” Hughes said. “At the beginning of the season we only had 14 to 16 players, and there was a game we only had 11, and since our first game we’ve been down at least one player. We have one starter out for the season. We really have a good team with everybody healthy and playing well.”

Boone’s last home game is Oct. 5 against Villa Madonna.

“We’re young,” Hughes said. “We have some incoming freshmen who are big contributors and we have girls who won the district title two years ago. We’re trying to mesh all that together as we progress with that.”

The two seniors are ready to end the season well and have fun while doing so.

“In all four years we’ve played we haven’t been first seed so it’s pretty nice as seniors,” Mersmann said. “We have people who like to goof off. Skylar and I like to goof off too, but we know when to focus and be quiet and get the job done.”

Follow James Weber on Twitter, @JWeberSports