Richmond-Burton hasn’t exactly been void of football victories lately.

But ever since that Class 4A state title in 2019, coach Mike Noll has felt like something has been missing – that victory that makes everyone take note.

You can scratch that off the list now.

In a game that lived up to its billing, Richmond-Burton took down Coal City 24-20 on Friday night.

The Coalers advanced to the state semifinals last year and are considered a contender to do so again in 2025. You may want to add the Rockets to that conversation now after winning a back-and-forth game thanks to two second-half touchdowns and a game-high 81 rushing yards from senior Luke Johnson.

“We just haven’t beat semifinal-type team in a long time, so we feel really good about it,” Noll said. “I thought in the fourth quarter, we were resilient. We just kept playing hard, all of our guys. And I’m really proud of that, and all of our guys. I mean that isn’t easy in Week 2.”

The two teams traded big punches all night long. Coal City quarterback Connor Henline threw for two touchdown passes and 188 yards (10-of-18 passing) while Logan Natyshok rushed for 71 yards and had 55 yards receiving.

The first blow came from Coal City on the opening possession of the game as Henline ended a 62-yard drive with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Brody Widlowski to make it 7-0 with 6:53 left in the first quarter.

However, Richmond-Burton (2-0), which needed only its running game a week ago, used three big completions from quarterback Ray Hannemann – two of which came on third down – to pace back-to-back scoring drives.

While the first ended in a one-yard touchdown run from Riley Shea, the second may have been more defining. The Rockets had a 25-play drive that started at their own 2 and lasted nearly the entire second quarter. They took possession with 8.9 seconds left in the first period and closed the drive with a 21-yard field goal from Trey Maziarz with 13.7 seconds left in the half to make it 10-7.

The result may have only been a field goal, but it was a precursor to what would happen in the second half. Richmond-Burton converted five third downs and one fourth down on that drive.

“We just couldn’t get off the field,” Coal City coach Francis Loughran said. “We had them in some third downs and they picked up big conversions. It’s a credit to them, whether it was on the ground or through the air. I thought we played tough, but they picked up the critical plays when they needed to.”

Twice in the second half the Coalers managed to regain the lead on touchdowns. And twice Johnson and Richmond-Burton answered with huge third- and fourth-down conversions – both on the same jet sweep motion. On fourth-and-1 after Coal City’s initial second half touchdown, Johnson swept left and scored from 10 yards out to make it 17-14. Then, after Coal City took the lead with 6:57 left to play, Johnson went left and broke a 24-yard scoring run for the game-winning score with 1:45 left in the game.

“Blake Livdahl blocked phenomenally,” Johnson said of the runs. “He was out hitting them and allowing me to get more yards and eventually touchdowns.”

“This win says we’re ready – ready for conference, ready for all of it.”