Rochelle returned home for the first time since junior running back/defensive back Dylan Manning suffered a head injury against Morris two weeks ago and with hundreds of fans wearing purple and white “Play Like Dyl #10” shirts, the Hubs beat Ottawa 42-3.

“We were relentless. That’s Rochelle football,” said former starting quarterback Van Gerber, who has been out since week 2 with a broken collarbone. “It was a huge win against Kaneland last week and that was 100 percent for Dylan.”

Since the Manning injury, it has been Roman Villalobos picking up the slack and for the second week in a row, the 195-pound senior fullback ran roughshod over a defense. This time, it was 125 yards on 21 carries and four touchdowns.

And, that was with Ottawa’s (2-6, 0-5) defense geared to stop him, as coach Chad Gross indicated in pregame comments. The Pirates were also hurt by Rochelle’s outside running game, as Tyler Gensler had 109 yards on just 7 carries.

“Rochelle attacks you multiple ways,” said Gross, grandson of Pirate pole vaulting coaching legend June Gross. “If you attack the middle, they hit you on the outside.”

With Manning gone, Rochelle (5-3, 3-2) doesn’t have a true game breaker and has been relying on a more balanced attack, as evidenced by its first scoring drive of 80 yards that took 15 plays, with Villalobos going over from 4 yards out for the TD.

“Everyone’s got Roman’s number, so moving forward, Tyler and Jonathan (Andrist) have to be a key part of it,” Rochelle coach Kyle Kissack said. “Tonight, we were able to execute and stay on the field.”

After Rochelle’s score, Ottawa strung together a couple of first downs, keyed by a 12-yard pass from Andrew Vercolio to Owen Sanders. A fourth-down toss to Archer Cechowicz came up a yard short and Rochelle got the ball back in midfield.

Despite a 4-yard TFL on Andrist by linebacker Joey Liebhart, Rochelle made it 14-0 early in the second quarter on a 26-yard touchdown by Gensler. Four plays earlier, Gensler ran for 24 yards and Andrist tacked on a 10 yarder.

“They’re amazing at running the ball and hard to defend,” said Pirate cornerback George Shumway. “They stay low at the line and are physical.”

Ottawa did manage to stop the Rochelle offense for the only time on the next possession, with Gensler gang-tackled on fourth-and-4. Taking over in Hub territory, Ottawa couldn’t take advantage, as a high snap to Vercolio resulted in a 24-yard loss on fourth down.

Taking over with 1:30 left in the first half, Gensler knocked off a 29-yard run to set up a Villalobos TD to make it 21-0. Gensler, younger brother of Hub all-staters Garrett and Grant, came up huge both sides of the ball, racking up 10 tackles, including 3 for losses.

“We have some things to clean up, but I liked how executed at the point of attack and spread the ball around,” Kissack said. “On defense, we rallied to the football with a bunch of hats on it.”

With the wind at their back in the third quarter, the Hubs pinned Ottawa back to up its lead to 35-0. From his linebacker’s position, Villalobos tipped an errant Vercolio pass to teammate Mark Green (his second in two weeks) to give Rochelle the ball at Ottawa’s 20-yard line.

Maybe rewarding Villalobos for the tip, Kissack called his number four straight plays until a touchdown resulted. On the Hubs next scoring drive, it was Andrist getting it rolling with a 15-yard gain, but it was a surprise ending with 6-foot-7 tight end Warren Schweitzer catching his first varsity touchdown pass from 5-7 quarterback Cohen Haedt. It was Rochelle’s only pass of the game, in which they had 307 yard rushing and four in the air.

“I accept it. Running the ball - that’s our identity,” said Schweitzer, who also teams up with Haedt on the basketball court.

For second time, Ottawa came up a yard short on a fourth down and a Villalobos TD made it a running clock with 10:01 left in the game.

“In the second half, they started to wear us out and impose their will on us,” Gross said.

The highlight of the game for Ottawa came from Lucas Farabaugh, who kicked a 46-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter, believed to be the longest ever at the Doug Creason Athletic Complex. It was second-longest in Ottawa history.

“That was great kick by Lucas, who was making them from 50 yards out in warm-ups,” Gross said. “He’s hoping to do it at the next level.”

Ethan Poutre and Wes Weatherford led the Pirates with 43 and 37 yards rushing. Defensively, Poutre had 9 tackles, followed by Logan Mills with 7. Similar to Rochelle, Ottawa has struggled with injuries this season.

“It’s been a tough year,” Gross said. “We have kids playing positions they hadn’t before.”

Interestingly, both Ottawa (Granite City) and Rochelle (Waterloo) host teams from the south next week.