Newman looking at another tough task in Week 9 as Kewanee comes to town

The Newman football team has faced tough challenges all season, but the toughest one yet is looming on Friday night.

The Comets (5-3) host undefeated Kewanee, which is ranked No. 4 in the AP Class 4A poll and secured at least a share of the Three Rivers East title with last week’s 26-14 win over Rockridge.

Two years after new head coach Brad Swanson started nine sophomores on offense, the Boilermakers (8-0) are now a senior-heavy team with plenty of experience and talent.

“Their coach has done a great job down there. He’s gotten them to play together, and they’re hard-nosed on both offense and defense,” Newman coach Brandon Kreczmer said. “They’ve got the athletes, they’ve got the size, they’re the real deal, so we’re going to have to be on top of our game come Friday.”

Senior quarterback Will Bruno has thrown 22 touchdown passes this season, and his 42-yard touchdown run after a late interception by classmate Niko Powe clinched last week’s win.

Keyontiss Patterson is the main ball carrier in the backfield, although fullback Josh Nimrick also will get touches. Powe, Cam Conley and Jordan Johnson are the senior receivers, with Johnson catching five passes for 182 yards and two TDs against Rockridge. Seniors James Conner, Conner Hoof and Skylar Summy anchor the offensive line.

The Boilers’ 325 points scored is second in the TRAC East to only Princeton (335). They’ve scored 24 or more in every game and have five games with at least 42 points.

“They’ve been scoring a lot all year,” Newman’s Ethan Van Landuit said. “They’re big, fast, and athletic, but we feel we can handle it. We’ve just got to play our game and play as a team, play physical and play together.”

That’s something the Comets have done well of late. Feeling they were in a must-win scenario after a Week 6 loss to Princeton, they beat Hall, 43-0, and Mendota, 24-7, the past two weeks.

“It’s just mainly having fun,” senior Marcus Williams said. “These last couple of weeks have been kind of stressful, with everything on the line, but we came together as a team one day and just had a talk at the tree, and said we just needed to start having fun, and everything just kind of started clicking. Everyone was kind of tight, so we’ve been letting loose and just having fun out there together.”

“I think we’ve really come together as a team,” Van Landuit said. “These past few weeks, we’ve been practicing really well, and it shows in the game. We started off slow last week, but we came together and played better in the final three quarters, and got that fifth win.”

Newman’s defense has allowed 121 points this season, the fewest in the TRAC East, and has given up more than 14 points in a game only twice. The Comets also are 4-0 at Roscoe Eades Stadium, and are eager to improve to 5-0 on senior night.

The key has been complete and total focus on the task at hand each week, not letting what happened in the last game affect the mindset for the next one.

“Just really mentally preparing,” Williams said. “Mondays are kind of a lighter day, so we’ll just kind of mentally prepare of the next game, go over our blocking schemes, backs making sure we’ve got our routes down. Just really mentally preparing for what we’re going to experience when we see their offense and defense on Friday night.”

Kewanee is 8-0 for the first time since finishing 8-0-1 in 1946, and is looking for its first 9-0 season since 1934. The team’s single-season record for wins is 10, set by the 1999 team that advanced to the quarterfinals.

Newman, meanwhile, is looking to extend its playoff streak to 20 straight seasons and play in the postseason for the 27th time in the last 28 seasons. Although having five wins already in the bank is likely enough to make that happen, the Comets want to officially clinch a playoff berth with their sixth win.

“I told the team prior to practice [Tuesday] that this is kind of the third round of the playoffs, the way we’re looking at it,” Kreczmer said. “We had to get the last two to get to five [wins], but I just don’t like keeping it up to the playoff points. Hopefully we can get six, solidify us in the field, but it’s going to be another tough test.”