Peotone head coach Apostolos Tsiamas said the message this week around the program leading up to Friday night’s Illinois Central Eight Conference game against visiting Streator was getting back on track.

The Blue Devils did just that.

Peotone (3-2, 2-1) used a combination of a strong running game and a fast and physical defensive effort to hold a 14-0 after one quarter, 35-0 at halftime and eventually posting a 42-7 victory over the Bulldogs (1-4, 0-3).

“We lost to two really good football teams in Marengo, which we were in the game until four minutes left, and Wilmington, which I felt like we competed with, in Weeks 2 and 3,” Tsiamas said. “After having last week off (with a forfeit win over Lisle), we wanted to get back to what we do, and that’s run the football.

“I challenged the kids this week, asking them if those two losses were because we played two really great teams or has our level of play has gone down a little bit. The kids responded and played a very solid football game to get us back on track.

“Defensively we had given up 14 touchdowns on the last 15 drives. We talked about getting stops and the kids did that tonight.”

Peotone opened the game with a 7-play, 62-yard drive, ending with a 2-yard TD run by Tucker Cain (9 carries, 62 yards). The Blue Devils forced a three-and-out punt and made it 14-0 on TD dash from the 2 by Eli Chenoweth (10 carries, 61 yards).

After forcing another punt, a short drive finished with a 3-yard TD run by Nick Cronin earlier in the second. Then after another defensive stop, Cain scored on a 19-yard scamper around right end to make it 28-0.

Just before halftime, Tyler Walker stepped in front of a Streator receiver for an interception and returned it 75 yards for a TD. Nate Wehrmann’s PAT kick made it 35-0.

Cronin, who rushed 19 times for 131 yards in the game, said the Blue Devils offensive line was solid. Peotone — which didn’t attempt a pass throughout the contest — finished with 285 rushing yards on 46 carries.

“Our offensive line was really good. Jimmy Iozzo, Evan Pane and Omero Isais, I was just following those guys through the line all game,” Cronin said. “Coach (Tsiamas) said we were going to run it tonight and those guys upfront made it easy for us backs to do that.

“We talked all week about coming here tonight prepared and ready to go. I felt like we came out strong and kept things going all the way through.”

The Bulldogs took the opening drive of the second half 10 plays and 48 yards, but lost the ball on downs at the Peotone 7.

The hosts then went on a 17-play drive that eventually found the end zone on a TD run from the 6 by Wayde Beechy to start the continuous running clock.

Streator snapped the shutout by putting together an 11-play, 55-yard drive with quarterback Sam Lerette running in from the 9, Brenden Fleming adding the PAT.

Streator finished with 128 yards rushing on 29 tries, led by Leddies Jordan 54 yards on 13 carries and Lerette’s 53 on seven. Lerette also passed for 27 yards.

“First off, I tip my hat to Peotone,” Streator head coach Jay Slone said. “They have a great team that is very well coached and very disciplined. They were the more disciplined team tonight. On defense they read their keys, played fast and played physical. All the things winning programs do defensively.

“We were just too inconsistent. You can’t take three steps forward and then two steps back, that’s not going to cut it. It’s a learning curve we are still trying to overcome. We had positives and I liked how we kept fighting until the very end, but we need to find a way to put four full quarters together.”

Next week Streator hosts Herscher, while Peotone is at Reed-Custer.