Ben Anderson entered Friday with one reception in three games this year.

His numbers are a little better after Sycamore’s 27-22 win over Rochelle in an Interstate 8 battle.

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Anderson had seven catches for 115 yards and three touchdowns, plus a key fourth-down catch that led to a touchdown late in the second quarter.

He also had an interception on defense.

“Griffin [Larsen] threw some great passes, so that was nice,” Anderson said. “Our run game did really well as well. ... I thought we were moving the ball really well. A lot of open windows.”

Sycamore (2-2 overall, 1-0 conference) trailed 22-21 with 3:16 left in the game after Rochelle (2-2, 0-1) scored on a 20-play, 71-yard drive that took 12:58 off the clock.

The Spartans took over on their own 41. Cooper Bode picked up a pair of third-and-2 runs. The second one set the Spartans up on the Rochelle 24. Quarterback Griffin Larsen found Anderson for a 24-yard catch with 1:11 left.

“I just had that little dig over the middle, and it was a great pass by Griffin,” Anderson said. “It was a super-tight window. We were just able to get into the end zone.”

Coach Joe Ryan said that two-minute drills are a part of every Monday practice, and he was glad to see it come through twice.

“We work on [the 2-minute offense] a lot in practice,” Anderson said. “I like everything about it. It gets the guys open, we move the ball, and it eats up the least amount of clock as possible.”

The Hubs did have a chance to win, but Cohen Haedt’s deep pass on first-and-10 from the Sycamore 38 was intercepted by Josiah Mitchell to seal the win.

The win for Sycamore was a week after a 45-16 home loss to Mahomet-Seymour that Ryan said was embarrassing due to a lack of physicality, something he said improved this week.

“We just went back this week and said we’re going to do the things that we like to do,” Ryan said. “We quit trying to find different ways to maybe out-scheme another team each week. We’re just going to do the things we like and hopefully that’s going to be good enough.”

The Hubs started their monster drive with 4:14 left on their own 28. A strange sequence resulted in them needing to attempt the same fourth-down conversion three times. On fourth-and-3 at their own 38, Dylan Manning picked up the first down, but the run was negated due to a hold. Sycamore shut down the Haedt pass on the next play, but a defensive hold put it back to a fourth and 3. Manning picked up four on the play to keep the drive alive.

It was still 11 more plays until the Hubs scored on a 1-yard run by Manning, who finished with 144 yards and two touchdowns. Ramon Villalobos added 92 yards and a touchdown.

“We were just being physical at the point of attack and we were just executing,” Rochelle coach Kyle Kissack said. “Our backs were running hard, we were trying to finish with our pads to the goal line, trying to get four yards here or there. You get a crease, that four turns into six and you keep the drive going.”

Sycamore scored on the first drive of the game on a 5-yard third-and-goal pass from Larsen to Anderson. Early in the second, Larsen hit Anderson on third and 5, this one for a 31-yard score to make it 14-0.

Rochelle scored two plays into its next drive on a 52-yard run by Villalobos. Later in the second, Sycamore took over with 1:36 left on its own 38, but got into the end zone. Anderson picked up 14 on a slant from Larsen on fourth and 10 from the Rochelle 35, then Dylan Curtis plunged it in from two yards out on third down for a 21-7 Sycamore lead at the break.

“They’re not panicking. No one’s panicking,” Ryan said. “We just go, hey, two-minute [drill], and they feel comfortable in that. ... We didn’t panic. That was huge to see that.”

Larsen finished 16 for 24 with 227 yards and three touchdowns without an interception. Mitchell had three catches for 60 yards. Rochelle outgained Sycamore 236-116 on the ground, but the Spartans finished with a 343-268 edge in total yards.

“When we play with that attitude and that effort, we’re a really good football team,” Kissack said. “That’s two really good programs just battling, which seems to go like that every year, come down to the last possession.”