Wilmington needed just six offensive snaps to score the first four touchdowns in its blowout, 49-0 homecoming win over Illinois Central Eight Conference rival Manteno on Friday night.

While those four scores would be more than enough for host Wildcats (4-1, 3-0 ICE), they tacked on two more touchdowns in the second quarter, albeit on slightly longer possessions, to go up 42-0 and activate the running clock with 7:35 left to go in the opening half.

A touchdown on the opening possession of the third quarter put the finishing touch on Wilmington’s 19th consecutive ICE victory, a streak that dates back to 2022.

“It’s another big win in conference,” senior running back Ryan Kettman said. “We’ve just got to keep bouncing, keep going together and working as a team.”

Manteno (3-2, 1-2 ICE) possessed the ball first on Friday and was pretty effective to start. The Panthers got the ball to Wilmington’s 11-yard line, but on a fourth-down play, Wilmington’s Billy Moore intercepted a Connor Harrod pass in the end zone.

Then, after an 11-yard run from Kettman, Ryan Schraeger took a handoff and ran 69 yards for a touchdown to put Wilmington up 7-0.

Manteno mounted a drive again after that, but had it stall out in the red zone again with a turnover on downs. Nate Cupples broke free for an 82-yard touchdown on the first play of the ensuing Wildcat drive, and the rout was on in Wilmington.

Mantneo fumbled the ball away on the first play of each of its next two drives, with recoveries by Hunter Kaitschuk and Will Wilson giving Wilmington prime field position, and leading to a pair of 10-yard touchdown runs from Moore.

Kettman punched it in from 10 yards out on the first play of the second quarter, and Kaitschuk cashed in Wilmington’s next drive with a 6-yard score.

Sophomore Dan Van Duyne got a bulk of the carries from the second quarter on, thanks to the ballooning score. He finished with 13 carries for 84 yards, including 47 yards on five carries on the opening possession of the third quarter, which he ended with a 4-yard touchdown run.

Wilmington head coach Jeff Reents said it was nice to be able to get Van Duyne and others some carries Friday, both to give the starters a bit of rest and build up experience for the younger guys.

“We can start to build them,” he said. “Some of this experience they’re getting, our younger guys, maybe that can build into next year for some of our guys that aren’t getting a lot of time. We were able to get a lot of guys in tonight. If their confidence level goes up, that helps us in practice and helps us in everything.”

Nine players had at least one rush for Wilmington, combining for 359 yards on 35 attempts.

With an average of over 10 yards per carry on Friday and an average on their seven touchdowns of over 27 yards per carry, senior offensive lineman Jack Cutter said it is rewarding to see the hard work at the line of scrimmage result in big plays.

“We all blocked well, the backs ran hard, and we did what we needed to do,” he said. “It feels great. We all block and see it pay off, see them running down the field.”

The Wildcats host Thornton next Friday for a nonconference tilt before diving back into the ICE against Streator the week after.

For Manteno, things don’t get a whole lot easier next week when they host Coal City (4-1, 2-0 ICE). Harrod finished the game 7 of 23 passing for 56 yards, connecting with Kalub Jankuski three times for 35 yards. The Panthers had -9 net rushing yards on 10 attempts.

“We played a much better football team,” head coach RJ Haines said. “What happened happened, and we’re kind of keeping our eyes down the road. We can still accomplish what we want to accomplish. Although we don’t feel good about it, because you never feel good after a loss, especially a loss like that, the message it lets get to work on Monday and get better.”