Wilmington wins 8th straight, closes Streator’s season 50-8

STREATOR – It’s off to the playoffs — maybe Class 2A, maybe Class 3A — with a bang for the Wilmington Wildcats, winners of eight straight after Friday’s 50-8 handling of host Streator at Doug Dieken Stadium.

For the Streator Bulldogs, it’s off to the offseason after a 2-7 campaign.

The Wildcats forced a three-and-out on Streator’s game-opening possession, hit a surprise, 44-yard play-action pass from Cade McCubbin to Reid Juster on their offensive first snap of the night, and three plays later were into the end zone on a Braeden Anderson 2-yard plunge on their way to an 8-1 regular season and wrapping up the Illinois Central Eight Conference outright championship.

“I feel really good about where we are, and everybody’s playing really hard,” Wilmington running back Kyle Farrell said. “We’re jelling together really well, we’ve got a good group of guys, and the seniors are leading.

“It’s a great group of guys to play with, and I really like how we’re starting to hit our stride here at the end.”

Wilmington will find out its opening-round playoff opponent — and class — Saturday night.

“You look at it from a full-season standpoint,” Wildcats coach Jeff Reents said, “we got done with the [Week 1] loss to Seneca, we were at Point A there. And now we’re at the end of the season, and I think we’ve grown, and we’ve gotten to a point where we’re very proud to be champs of the ICE Conference.

“I think we’ve grown from that Seneca loss, gotten a little bit better every week, and hopefully we can keep growing like that going into the playoffs.”

“I think we’ve grown from that Seneca loss, gotten a little bit better every week, and hopefully we can keep growing like that going into the playoffs.”

—  Jeff Reents, Wilmington football coach

The Wildcats outgained the Bulldogs 379-161 in yards from scrimmage. That included a 291-30 edge on the ground led by Farrell’s 12 carried for 94 yards, Anderson’s four carries for 56 and two touchdowns, and Shawn James’ 41 yards on eight carries during the second-half running clock.

McCubbin added a 4-of-5 day passing for 88 yards and two touchdowns — Juster hauling in two passes for 54 yards, while Farrell caught an 18-yard touchdown and ran back a 70-yard punt return for a score after having one called back earlier in the night.

“Just amazing blocking in front of me,” Farrell said. “People were laying people out, a lot of effort, and two big blocks at the end by [Zach] Ohlund and [Ryan] Nelson.hey hit the guy, and I was able to get it.”

As has been the case most of the season, the bulk of the Bulldogs’ offense came courtesy of senior quarterback Christian Benning. Under duress all night, Benning completed 7-of-24 passes for 131 yards to close the books on his school record 4,252 career yards, unofficially. Anthony Mohr (four catches, 97 yards) and Matt Williamson (two receptions, 21 yards) were Benning’s top targets.

Benning is one of 10 Streator seniors on the roster who played their final game as Bulldogs. He ran in the team’s lone touchdown — a 26-yard, juke-filled scramble — in the fourth quarter set up by fellow senior Harley Kosur’s 19-yard run.

“For me, [these seniors] were my first group here,” Streator coach Kyle Tutt said. “They started with the COVID season, and we started with 24, 25 kids in the whole program. I asked those kids to stay to be leaders, and that’s what they were for four years. ...

“There’s a reason Wilmington is No. 3 in 3A and going to make another deep run. They do their stuff really well, and they put us in a lot of predicaments tonight. The defense they run is very aggressive ... and I think up front, they’re just phenomenal.”

Juster added a 34-yard field goal for Wilmington on special teams, while on defense Joey Cortests recorded a quarterback sack.

Jacob Isermann notched a tackle for a loss for the Bulldogs.