After disappointing losses the last two weeks and upcoming road trips to Morris and Kaneland, Rochelle‘s football team desperately needed a win. Taking down La Salle-Peru 40-7 Friday, the Hubs salvaged their season and put themselves in good position for playoff qualifying.

“Playing quality opponents in one of the toughest 5A conferences in the state, we’ve got our work cut out for us,” Rochelle coach Kyle Kissack said. “I was happy with our kids being resilient and fighting through adversity with more injuries and a tough loss to Sycamore last week.”

At first, it didn’t come easy against L-P (1-4, 0-2). The Cavaliers stopped an opening 10-play Hub drive and then put together a couple first downs of their own behind the arm of Marion Persich.

In what would become many big plays on defense for Rochelle (3-2, 1-1), linebacker Reece Harris intercepted Persich at the Hub 30-yard line. Dylan Manning and Keegan Albers would also have interceptions.

On the very next play, sophomore QB Cohen Haedt connected with a wide-open Dylan Manning for a 70-yard touchdown pass. It is extremely rare for Rochelle to pass on first down and the Cavaliers were caught with their entire defense set up to stop the run.

“It’s important for us to be able to throw on double tight (end),” Kissack said. “We’ve struggled to do that the last couple weeks. Moving forward, we’re going to have to do that to keep teams off guard.”

It was the first of four consecutive TDs for Manning.

“It was a good time to call pass,” Manning said.

On its next drive, L-P had a chance to do the same to Rochelle, but a 40-yard flea-flicker from Persich to an open Landon Zellers fell past his reach. Still, Persich rambled 16 yards for a first down and then found Zellers for another first down to move into Hub territory.

“Their quarterback is a great player who can make things happen,” Kissack said.

But the Hub defense came up with three straight gems to force a fourth-and-18 punt. First, it was Kyle Gensler sacking Persich for an 8-yard loss. Then Brode Metzger, who sacked Persich for 10 yards earlier, batted down a pass. On third down, Harris almost had his second interception after the Persich was besieged by the defense.

“Our defense executed the game plan as well as they could and were able to get off the field in the first half,” Kissack said.

The Cavalier defense had a respectable outing in the first half by stopping three Hub drives. It appeared both teams would go to half with Rochelle up 7-0, but Manning scored on a fourth-down jet sweep with 16 seconds left.

“We did OK in the first half with our defense,” L-P coach JJ Raffelson said. “But, when it comes down to it, we need to execute better on both sides of the ball.”

Manning had a 63-yard touchdown called back for holding early in the third quarter, leading to a fourth-and-32. A punt gave the Cavaliers the ball on Rochelle’s side of the field, but they could not muster a first down.

“We need to come out ready to play. We didn’t do that,” Raffelson said.

Manning put the game away on the next play with a 58-yard touchdown run. He looked to be stopped at midfield, but like he has done so many times in his career, he found a way to break free and outran defenders to the goal line.

After the Albers’ interception, Manning made it 28-0 on a 10-yard score in the fourth quarter. With 156 yards, Manning wasn’t even the leading ground gainer for the Hubs.

That honor went to Roman Villalobos with 207 yards and the final two touchdowns. On a 77-yard score, the 195-pound fullback bulled over a defender with a crushing blow and ran untouched the rest of the way. He added a 47-yard ramble to close out the scoring.

“The longer the game goes on, the better we play,” Villalobos said. “We came out in the second half and wanted it more than they did. After losing to Sycamore, we were hungry. It was the first time that I’ve ever had two straight losses in high school.”

Rafe Helmig caught a 20-yard touchdown pass from Persich for L-P’s lone score. That cut the lead to 28-7 in the fourth quarter. Overall, Persich completed 14 of 28 passes for 134 yards. Rylynd Rynkewicz led the way with 4 catches.

Rochelle had 397 yards rushing compared to 65 for L-P. Gensler led the Hubs with 7 tackles and 2 sacks.