Hall-Putnam County suffered a big blow in Week 6 when the Red Devils lost quarterback Dylan Glynn to an injury during a competitive game with Princeton, which Hall lost 28-12.

“It’s unfortunate to have Dylan Glynn out as he was a great contributor to the team,” Hall coach Nick Sterling said. “We lost one of our main threats when he went down.”

During the Princeton game, senior Aiden Redcliff moved from running back to quarterback, but in the last two weeks, senior running back Braden Curran has stepped into the role.

In two games, Curran has completed 10-of-20 passes for 149 yards and a touchdown with one interception. He made a big improvement from his first game against Monmouth-Roseville to last week in a 34-25 loss to Riverdale. Curran was 2 of 9 for 19 yards with a pick in the 57-14 loss to the Titans, but was 8 for 11 for 130 yards and a TD against the Rams.

Curran ran for 122 yards and two TDs against Monmouth-Roseville and had 35 rushing yards and a TD last week.

“Braden has done a tremendous job filling in at QB,” Sterling said. “There is a lot of input from coaches and team members during practice and films and his retention of the information during this short period has been unbelievable. It’s kind of like cramming for a test. This week, I felt he really settled in and completed some really great passes in addition to some really good reads in the pocket and running when he should. His pass completion percentage has kept us in the game.”

Sterling said the Red Devils have had players step up throughout the season due to injuries.

“We have had other short-term injuries throughout the season and the players who stepped up into those starting or key roles did a tremendous job for us as well,” Sterling said. “It’s been challenging at times, but the players have responded well.”

Slow starts

For the second straight week, Princeton sputtered in the first half at Mercer County Friday night.

The Golden Eagles kept the ball for nearly nine minutes before scoring a field goal and held the Tigers scoreless in the first quarter. While they took a 14-3 lead with two second-quarter touchdowns, they clung to a 14-9 halftime lead and fell behind 15-15 early in the second quarter when Mercer County recovered an onside kickoff.

Tiger coach Ryan Pearson asked his team what they needed to do differently, and didn’t find many answers.

“We just need to find out a way,“ he said. ”I don’t know if we need to come up with some kind of dance to get us fired up. I heard [the kids say] some dancing, I heard stretch more. But we’re going to have to go back to the drawing board.”

Senior running back Casey Etheridge said he didn’t have an answer either, but “I think that’s something we can sleep on and then brainstorm as a team.”

Looking afar

Conference realignments over the past decade or so have left some leagues short on teams and forcing teams to schedule extra nonconference games.

With more slots to fill on the schedule, teams have found it difficult to find opponents, so teams have had to search far and wide.

In Week 9, La Salle-Peru will welcome O’Fallon to Howard Fellows Stadium after the Cavaliers traveled to O’Fallon to end last season.

O’Fallon will travel more than six hours and about 440 miles round trip to play the Cavaliers.

St. Bede will drive more than 200 miles and nearly four hours round trip to play Decatur St. Teresa on Friday.

Like L-P, the other five teams in the Interstate 8 Conference are traveling to or hosting teams that are 6 or more hours away round trip, as Kaneland plays Belleville Althoff, Morris faces Byron Center (Michigan), Rochelle hosts Waterloo and Sycamore travels to Cahokia.

Seneca, a Chicagoland Prairie Conference team like St. Bede, plays at Carlyle.

A flex regional scheduling proposal by Roxana High School looks to help teams avoid this type of situation.

Record night for Etheridge

With his five touchdowns Friday, Etheridge set Bureau County records for most touchdowns scored overall and most touchdowns by rushing.

He now has 75 total touchdowns, 74 by rushing, surpassing former Tiger Ronde Worrels, who had 74 total and 72 rushing.

Etheridge became the all-time Bureau Country rushing leader, now with 4,965 yards. Worrels had 4,387.

So close

La Salle-Peru enters the final week of the regular season out of playoff contention with a 2-6 record, but the Cavaliers were close to a much different record.

The Cavs lost the season opener 23-21 to United Township (4-4). L-P scored a touchdown with 2:09 left, but missed the tying two-point conversion.

On Friday, L-P scored a go-ahead touchdown and two-point conversion with 29.8 seconds left, only for Kaneland to kick the winning field goal as time expired to beat the Cavs 23-21.

“We’re a good football team,” L-P coach JJ Raffelson said. “I can tell you, our record does not reflect the team.”

L-P’s six losses have come against teams that are a combined 34-14. The Cavs have played four teams that are already playoff eligible in Morris (8-0), Metamora (7-1), Kaneland (6-2) and Rochelle (5-3), while Sycamore and United Township are on the cusp at 4-4.

Seeing improvement

In Jim Eustice’s first season as Mendota’s coach, the Trojans have taken a big step forward this fall.

Last year, Mendota went 0-9, lost by an average margin of 31.6 points and had a running clock in six of its losses.

This season, the Trojans have already won two games and will look to reach No. 3 when they close out the season Friday at home against Mercer County (1-7). If Mendota wins, it would be its first season of three or more wins since 2022.

Mendota has been much more competitive in its losses this season, losing by an average margin of 20.2 points and only having the running clock invoked once against Monmouth-Roseville, a top-10-ranked team in Class 3A.

The Trojans have also had competitive losses to Hall (18-6), Newman (35-18) and Erie-Prophetstown (27-14). Mendota only trailed Newman (7-1) 14-12 going to the fourth quarter, and on Friday, the Trojans trailed E-P (6-2) 20-14 in the fourth quarter.

“That was a really nice high school football game to watch,” Eustice said after Friday’s loss at Erie. “Both teams played very well with a lot of hard hitting going on. Nothing to hang our heads about, that’s for sure.

“I’m proud of our kids. We’ve done a lot of good things here this year, trying to turn this thing around.”