After missing last week with an injury, Mercer Mumford made his presence felt early and often for Polo in its Illinois 8-Man Football Association quarterfinal against St. Anne on a soggy Saturday afternoon.

The junior running back lost a fumble on his first carry of the game, but bounced back in a big way with 165 yards and three touchdowns in the Marcos’ 46-14 victory.

“It feels great to be out here. I missed last week, and that kind of sucked, but I was happy to hear the news that I could play today,” said Mumford, who was cleared to play on his injured right shoulder by a medical trainer Friday afternoon. “At the start of the game, I was a little nervous; I didn’t really want to take a shot to that shoulder. But once I started going, I thought, ‘I can do this, I can take a hit, take a shot to it, I’m fully healed, let’s go.’”

Mumford and senior quarterback JT Stephenson provided a powerful 1-2 punch, as Stephenson ran for 170 yards and two scores, and also connected with Mumford on a 26-yard touchdown pass on the final play of the first half as Polo (10-1) scored 46 straight points after falling behind 6-0.

“It’s amazing to have multiple guys making plays, and makes a huge difference. Having different weapons is where it’s at,” Stephenson said. “The holes were wide open, and our line did great, just an amazing job all day.”

Defensively, Polo held St. Anne (9-2) to 8 yards rushing, and the rainy, windy weather wasn’t conducive to the Cardinals’ preferred aerial attack. Grant Pomaranski threw for 100 yards and two touchdowns on 9-for-24 passing, but 69 of that came in the second half when St. Anne was trailing by 40.

“Our weakest part of our game is our pass defense, and they’re a really good passing team, but we were able to zone in on that, work on it in practice this week, and really focus on that today,” Mumford said. “I thought we did pretty well, our DBs did a really good job covering their guys, and our D-line stopped them in their run.”

“We have great young men that want to come and win. They did their best, but we made lots of mistakes – and Polo’s a hell of a program,” St. Anne coach Alan Rood said. “… We could never get back the momentum, and they kept it rolling. They capitalized, and that’s how you win the game.”

St. Anne took the opening kickoff 36 yards to the Polo 29-yard line, but came up empty after an 11-play drive took the Cardinals inside the 10-yard line.

But on the Marcos’ second play, the wet ball slipped out of Mumford’s hands and St. Anne recovered at the 16. Four plays later, Pomaranski hit Trevor Van Pelt for a 9-yard touchdown pass on fourth and 3, and the Cardinals led 6-0 eight minutes into the game.

Mumford and the Marcos shook it off. He covered 70 yards in the next two plays, scoring on a 44-yard sprint for an 8-6 lead just 23 seconds later. Polo then forced consecutive three-and-out possessions, and scored on short touchdown runs after both.

“Same thing as last week, just that next-play mentality,” Stephenson said. “If you worry about the last play, it’s going to kill the next one. We came out strong and just kept going.”

Damon Rowe forced a fumble and Wyatt Plachno recovered on St. Anne’s next drive, and Polo cashed in again for a 30-6 lead with 2:05 left before halftime.

After three incomplete passes by St. Anne, the Marcos got another chance before the break and capitalized. Stephenson scampered out of bounds with 4 seconds left after a 31-yard run, then hit Mumford for a TD on a wheel route as time expired for a 38-6 halftime lead.

Polo went 65 yards in six plays to open the second half, as Stephenson capped it with a 15-yard TD run and a 46-6 lead to set the continuous clock in motion.

“We’ve had a great season, but we came up short today, and it’s just unfortunate that we don’t get to keep playing,” Rood said. “We thought we could, and you meet a team like this, boy, they’re a team to be reckoned with. I think they’ve got a chance [to win it all]. Props to them.”

Polo advances to the I8FA semifinals for the sixth straight season, and will take on South Fork next weekend seeking its first trip to the state championship game since back-to-back titles in 2019 and 2021.

“It’s a great feeling. We’ve made it there every year we’ve been in 8-man, and we wanted to keep the streak alive,” Mumford said. “We’ve been there, we know the challenge that’s there, the hype around the game, and I think we’re ready.”