The offensive arsenal and veteran defense of Bradley-Bourbonnais were put on display Friday night as the Boilermakers opened up the 2025 season with a 42-0 home win over Thornton Fractional North.

The Boilermakers went up 21-0 in the first quarter and extended their lead to 35-0 by the half. They scored again midway through the third quarter to go up 42-0, and cruised the rest of the way with a running clock.

Senior quarterback Ellis Johnson, making his first career start Friday, was 8 of 11 passing for 157 yards and a pair of touchdowns while also running for a 16-yard score.

“Playing with the guys that are on our offense, it makes it really easy for me to succeed out there,” he said. “We put 42 points up, so it was a good time.”

Johnson is also the team’s kicker and he was able to make a big impact there as well. He was a perfect 6 of 6 on his extra points and kicked touchbacks on six of his seven kickoffs, pinning the Meteors deep in their own territory and, thanks to the strong play of the Boilermaker defense, giving his offense a huge advantage in field position all night.

“He’s just a really dynamic kid, and he makes our special teams really dynamic,” Kohl said. “Any time you start a senior at quarterback, you’ve got a chance to be pretty good. Ellis sat last year, watched a lot and really took a lot of mental reps. Kudos to him for the preparation, to be a backup last year to start as a senior here and to lead us in this first game.”

The Boilermakers fielded the opening kickoff of the game, an onside attempt by the Meteors, at their own 49-yard line and would not start a possession further back than their own 43 in the game. Their average starting field position was the TF North 45-yard line, while the Meteors’ was just across their own 20.

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Bradley-Bourbonnais' Ellis Johnson, right, celebrates his touchdown in the 2nd quarter with teammate LyZale Edmon, left, in a game against T.F. North on Friday, August 29, 2025. (Nicholas Holstein for Shaw Local)

That opening drive was capped off by a 3-yard touchdown run from Kyren Edmon, who also had a 5-yard touchdown later in the first quarter to make it 21-0 Boilermakers. He had 37 yards on 10 carries in the game.

Bradley-Bourbonnais’ second touchdown was a 56-yard strike from Johnson to senior tight end Calvin Kohl, who stiff-armed a pair of defenders down the sideline on his run toward the end zone.

Johnson’s touchdown run made it 28-0 early in the second quarter, and he made it 35-0 with just under a minute to go in the half when he stood in the pocket and took a hit but delivered a 30-yard touchdown pass to Lyzale Edmon, who had four catches for 79 yards Friday.

Isaac Allison, who had eight carries for 60 yards and also two catches for 11 yards, ran for a 2-yard score midway through the third to wrap up the scoring for the Boilermakers.

Bradley-Bourbonnais’ defense also had a strong showing Friday. The starting unit played the first three quarters before sitting the fourth. In their time on the field, the defense allowed just two first downs, and in the six plays immediately following those first downs, the Meteors went backward nearly 40 combined yards.

In addition to his 56-yard touchdown, Calvin Kohl helped anchor the defense at linebacker as one of nine returning starters on that side of the ball.

“We’ve got a lot of experience on the defense this year,” he said. “I’m really excited to see how the rest of the season goes. All of our guys are starting to work together and it’s only going to get better from here.”

Mike Kohl said that the speed the defense possesses at every level really showed up Friday, continuing to prove that they may be the quickest defense he’s seen in his time with the program.

“I’ve been here for 25 years, and these guys can really run,” he said. “Our defensive line, our linebackers, our safeties, and coach [Freddie] Dudek does a great job with all those guys. It’s as fast a defense as we’ve ever had here, so we’re excited to see them as they develop and get better.”

The defense will face a test next week when the Boilermakers host a Crete-Monee team that put up 41 points in Week 1, albeit in a 51-41 loss to Richards.