La Salle-Peru honored alumnus Joe Rutgens between the first and second quarters of the Cavaliers’ 32-20 loss to Metamora on Friday at Howard Fellows Stadium.

Rutgens is a 1957 L-P graduate who went on to play football at the University of Illinois and in the NFL for Washington.

He was recently selected for the University of Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame and will be honored Oct. 10 in Champaign. In 2008, Rutgens was named one of the top 10 defensive linemen in Illinois history. He’s also a member of the Shaw Media Illinois Valley Hall of Fame.

Rutgens was a two-time All-Big Ten selection for the Illini and was voted All-American in 1960. He was the third overall pick in the 1961 NFL draft.

Rutgens played nine seasons in the NFL and was a Pro Bowl selection in 1963 and 1965.

“When you get a legend in the building, it’s always nice,” L-P coach JJ Raffelson said. “It’s good for the kids to see because he’s a guy who’s been around the program and the community for a long time. It’s always good to recognize people who have meant a lot to La Salle-Peru and what it means to be a Cavalier.”

TOUGH START

The seven 11-man football teams in the NewsTribune area went 0-7 in Week 2 and are a combined 1-13 through the first two weeks of the season.

St. Bede has the only win for area teams with its 47-6 victory over Bureau Valley in Week 1. La Salle-Peru, Hall-Putnam County, Mendota, Princeton, BV and Fieldcrest are all 0-2.

L-P and Princeton are in unfamiliar territory. The Cavaliers last started 0-2 in 2014, and the Tigers’ last 0-2 start came in 2017, which was Ryan Pearson’s first season as Princeton’s head coach.

Pearson believes it should be easy corrections for the Tigers.

“I would think so. I truly think they are easy fixes,” he said. “But at the same time, we’re doing it right all week in practice, and we come out and we just don’t flat out execute. That’s very, very frustrating.

“We told them we’re going to go back to practice, roll up our sleeves, put our helmets on and go back to work. That’s all you can do.”

GAINING CONFIDENCE

Mendota senior wide receiver Keegan Beetz saw limited action last season due to an injury, making one catch in the opener for 31 yards.

Beetz did not have a catch in the Trojans’ 20-0 loss to Riverdale in this year’s season opener.

But the 6-foot-1, 185-pounder had a breakout performance in Week 2.

Beetz caught six passes for 101 yards and two touchdowns in a 35-18 loss to Newman, including a 20-yard TD reception that gave Mendota a 6-0 lead in the first quarter.

“He’s a talent,” Mendota coach Jim Eustice said. “His confidence has been lacking because of the lack of game experience last year. Then Week 1, he dropped a pass and slipped on two plays – one on offense and one on defense. Those hurt his confidence.

“We worked all week telling him to relax and let the game come to him. Now, his confidence is sky high.”

‘THAT STUFF CAN’T FLY’

La Salle-Peru and Metamora got into a sideline skirmish with Metamora during the first half of Friday’s game when L-P quarterback Marion Persich was hit late out of bounds on the Cavalier sideline.

A Metamora player was ejected and won’t be able to play in Week 3.

“I tell my kids first and foremost that we need to be respectful,” Raffelson said. “But at the same time, if people are going to punch their quarterback, I respect that they want to protect him. We protect our own, but that stuff can’t fly. It happened on both sides. After that, it got a little bit better. We had some of our own mistakes when it came to it. We just need to learn from something like that. We always protect our own players, but we need to make sure we don’t get personal fouls.”

PEARSON CLEARED TO PLAY

Princeton senior linemen Rhett Pearson received some good news from the doctor on Friday after going down with a knee injury in the Week 1 game at Newman. There is no structural damage.

“We got great news today with the MRI. There’s no tears with his knee. If you ask him, he’s going to play (Friday). We got positive news and that’s No. 1,” Ryan Pearson said.

On the sidelines Friday, Rhett Pearson said he could have played against Rockridge, but couldn’t get the coach, his dad, to agree.