Dorian Patterson remembers being a freshman depth piece in the Crete-Monee football program when the Warriors bested Kankakee by a field goal to win their 2022 regular-season finale and Southland Athletic Conference championship, a feeling he and the Warriors hadn’t felt since then.

Friday night at Kankakee, that changed.

Patterson caught one of three touchdown passes from Derrin Couch while the Crete-Monee defense shut down a high-powered Kays offense that saw some injury woes along the way, scoring the first four touchdowns of the game before holding off a late Kankakee rally for a 27-14 win.

“Coming in my freshman year we had a big win over them, sophomore year, junior year, we had a bit of an upset, but this year it meant a lot because I love these boys,” Patterson said. " ... We just hold each other accountable. We play as a team, when someone messes up we get them back in the game and stay level headed."

In the seventh straight season that saw the two rivals play for the Southland title, including the fourth straight season in which they met in Week 9, the Warriors (7-2, 6-0 Southland) not only snapped a two-year conference and rivalry drought, but ended the regular season with their seventh straight win after an 0-2 start.

Junior running back/slot receiver Jeremiah Stonewall got the Warriors on the board with a 25-yard touchdown catch from Couch just over five minutes in, a lead that grew to 13-0 by halftime on Trevon Williams’ 9-yard scoring scamper with five minutes left in the half.

After star jack-of-all-trades senior Cedric Terrell III went out early with an injury, the Kays (6-3, 5-1) saw another standout leave when junior quarterback Phillip Turner exited with a hand/finger injury on the ensuing Kankakee drive. Terrell III returned and played quarterback in the second half, while Turner didn’t return.

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 6

Crete-Monee's Dorian Patterson intercepts the ball during the Warriors' victory over the Kays on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025 (Anthony Sanfratello for Shaw Local News Network)

Whether it was injuries, penalties – the Kays had 16 of them for 151 yards – or unfortunate bounces, the hosts just seemed to stack one misfortune upon another.

“That’s the game of football that you don’t necessarily want your team to go through, especially when you’re down,” Kays head coach Ed Hazelett said. “I call it quicksand, just one thing after the other. It’s hard for anybody, especially teenagers, to fight that uphill battle.”

The Kays sunk a little deeper in that quicksand when Couch found Patterson for an 18-yard TD with 2:36 left in the third and then hit D’arion Yarbrough for an 8-yard score with 4:47 in the game, but they found their footing shortly thereafter.

Zyair Turner returned the ensuing kickoff 63 yards for a touchdown to get the Kays on the board, and after Syvean Davila recovered Elijah Cunningham’s onside kick, Terrell III found Ezekiel Sherrod for a 21-yard touchdown on a pass that was tipped in coverage with 3:07 left.

On a short, onside squib kick, Sherrod sped down and recovered it inside the Crete-Monee 30-yard line, but on the first play of the next Kankakee drive, Terrell III was intercepted in the end zone by Jayden Marshall to seal the deal.

“The game’s not over until the game’s over,” Warriors head coach John Konecki said. “For us, everything is a teachable moment and we’ll go back and tell the guys to make sure we play for 48 minutes, but hat’s off to (the Kays). They were the conference champions and weren’t going to give it up. Now we’re able to take it back to 1515 W. Exchange St.”

Couch finished 12-of-20 passing for 136 yards and three touchdowns and an interception, including a perfect 6-of-6 for 68 yards and two scores in the second half. Patterson had seven catches for 63 yards and a touchdown and added an interception defensively. Stonewall had three catches for 57 yards and a score.

After returning from injury and moving from receiver to signal-caller, Terrell III was 4-of-9 passing for 79 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. Sherrod had three catches for 57 yards and a touchdown, recovered an onside kick, and had an interception.

Like they did after their 0-2 start to defending state champions Nazareth and Lincoln-Way East to rattle off a six-game winning streak, Hazelett has confidence the Kays can have a quick memory as they now begin their IHSA Class 5A playoff preparations, a program-record sixth straight playoff trip.

“It’s got to be a quick turnaround,” Hazelett said. “Tomorrow we’ll find out who we play and have to start preparing for them.”