The Ponies were galloping in St. Anne Friday night.

South Fork/Edinburg/Morrisonville used 453 rushing yards – 300 of those yards coming from senior George Bailey – and had five rushing touchdowns to defeat St. Anne 48-26 at the Russell A. Cotton Athletic Complex. The Ponies punched their ticket into the Illinois 8-Man Association Playoffs, improving their record to 5-0. The Cardinals took their first loss of the season, falling to 4-1.

“Its a huge win,” South Fork head coach Zack Hanlon said. “[St. Anne is] a dang good football team. That was a hard fought game, the score is what it is, but that was a hard fought game all the way through.”

After multiple possession changes to begin the game, South Fork cashed in first. Ponies senior quarterback Brodey Vanhooser found classmate Brody Lush for a 44-yard touchdown to make it 6-0 South Fork with 3:49 to go in the first.

The Cardinals would respond early in the second quarter, when Cardinals senior Grant Pomaranski hit classmate Matthew Langellier for a 37-yard score to knot things up at 6-6. The Ponies would go on to score 18 unanswered points for the rest of the first half to bring the halftime score to 24-6.

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St. Anne's Nathan Brammer, right, looks to make the tackle as South Fork's Brodey Vanhooser, left, carries the ball on a play in a game on Friday, Spetember 26, 2025. (Nicholas Holstein for Shaw Local)

Those 18 unanswered points all came via the run. Bailey scored touchdowns on 56 and 71-yard runs and Lush added in an 8-yard touchdown run.

“Our identity is the run,” Hanlon mentioned. “That’s what it’s always going to be. That’s what wins the games late in the season and in the playoffs. That’s our identity and that’s what we will stick to.”

South Fork’s gameplan was to jump out of the gates strong against a St. Anne team that was celebrating homecoming with packed stands that could have easily provided the Cardinals with an advantage, and that gameplan was accomplished.

“With it being their homecoming, they got full stands, so it was important for us to jump out early,” Hanlon said. “If not, they got the stands behind them. That’s a big deal. So that was extremely important for us.”

The Cardinals were the first team on the board in the second half when senior Quinton Thompsen rushed into the endzone 15 yards out to cut the deficit to 24-13 with 7:15 in the third. The Ponies would answer back with another Bailey rushing touchdown, this time from 11-yards out to make it 32-13.

Vanhooser would add in a rushing touchdown of his own to extend the South Fork lead to 40-13 midway through the fourth. The Cardinals would find touchdowns from a 85-yard kickoff return by Langellier and a touchdown pass by Pomaranski to senior Trevor Van Pelt, but the deficit was too much to overcome.

“It’s huge to beat a good football team and punch the ticket,” Hanlon said. “At the same time, we got so many things that we need to clean up, mistakes on both sides of the ball. So, that’s a good and a bad thing, knowing that we can get better from where we’re at.”

For the Cardinals, this loss has been the only blemish on an otherwise great start to the season. With a matchup next Friday against Decatur Unity Christian, St. Anne will try to clinch a playoff spot for the second time in school history.