Cooper Bode read Marion Persich’s eyes, jumped a pass, got an interception, and sparked a 27-point swing.

The Sycamore senior’s interception stopped a La Salle-Peru drive in the red zone and eventually led to a stretch of four straight touchdowns as the Spartans held off a late Cavaliers’ rally in a 34-28 win on Friday in Sycamore.

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“Those types of plays are just game-changing plays,” Bode said. “We had a lot of those on defense today. Just getting the offense back on the field, that’s how you win football games.”

The Spartans (4-3 overall, 3-1 Interstate 8) had the ball at the 47 after Bode intercepted Persich inside the 20 and ran it out.

The drive netted six yards. The L-P returner couldn’t get out of the way of the ball after a late decision to try to let it bounce into the end zone, and Crewe Bartelt was there to recover it.

On the first play, Dylan Curtis ran 8 yards for the score and a 14-7 lead with 4:19 left in the first.

The Cavaliers (2-5, 1-3) went three-and-out for the first time on the next two drives. Sycamore scored after both of them, the first time on a 1-yard plunge by Kevin Lee on third down, the second time on an 87-yard run by Vasilios Arhos.

L-P followed with a 15-play, 64-yard drive that ate more than 6 minutes off the clock, ending with a third-and-goal pass from the 6 from Persich to Rylynd Rynkewiz, cutting the Sycamore lead to 27-14 with 2:30 left in the first half.

“There was just no quit,” L-P coach JJ Raffelson said. “From Day 1 our motto is war. Every day is a battle and we just have to come out and fight it to the end. That’s why it’s four quarters and not two. We just have to keep going and keep fighting and they did that for me. I was proud of those boys.”

Sycamore answered with its 2-minute drill, flying down the field for a score. On third-and-goal from the 2, Griffin Larsen hit Andrew Nehring on a play-action lob for a touchdown and a 34-14 lead going into the half.

The Cavaliers scored on their first possession of the second half, capped by a 17-yard run by Persich on third and 15, cutting the lead to 34-20 with 3:51 left in the third.

With the same score halfway through the fourth, Sycamore fumbled a punt return and La Salle-Peru took over at the Spartans’ 49. Persich ran it in untouched up the middle, cutting the lead to 34-28 with 4:37 left.

“We’ve been in a lot of close games this year and some of them haven’t gone our way,” Bode said. “But we battled hard today and I think we’ve really taken a step up.”

The Spartans ran out the rest of the clock, getting a 42-yard pass from Larsen to Josiah Mitchell to move the ball to the L-P 30. They picked up a fourth-and-inches when the Cavaliers jumped offside and kneeled to seal the win.

“I thought we responded to some of the things after we got a big win,” said Sycamore coach Joe Ryan, whose team likely needs a win against Morris (7-0) or Cahokia (6-1) to make the postseason. “We kind of held on. But we’re just trying to win at this point, so we’ll take it.”

Persich ran for 209 yards and three touchdowns on 29 carries, plus threw for another 76. Arhos led Sycamore with 101 yards while Larsen threw for 106. Sycamore ran 48 plays for 304 yards while L-P had 69 plays for 289 yards.

The Cavaliers started the game with an 8-play, 43-yard drive, ending with a 12-yard run by Persich for the score. They converted a third-and-6 and a third-and-10 on the drive.

The Spartans got the seven points back on the kickoff, when Caden Ralph returned the bouncing kick 73 yards for a touchdown untouched down the right side.

As big as the two turnovers were, Ryan said Ralph’s return was bigger.

“They went down and scored and right away we’re making it 7-7 with a great kickoff return,” Ryan said. “That was big there.”