Newman looking for more ‘Blue Machine’ football in first round

The Newman football team has been treating its last three games as the start of the the playoffs. Sitting and 3-3 after a Week 6 loss to Princeton, coach Brandon Kreczmer told his Comets that they’d have to win out to make it to Week 10.

The Newman players took heed. They defeated Hall 43-0 in Week 7, then followed that with a 24-7 win on the road in Week 8 against Mendota.

The piéce de resistance came last Friday night, when the Comets turned a 17-3 halftime deficit against previously undefeated Kewanee into a 20-17 victory with a dominant performance on both sides of the ball in the second half.

The winning drive lasted more than eight minutes, and Newman held the ball for more than 14 minutes in the second half.

“Hopefully it can carry over to the playoffs, against a really good Mercer County team,” Newman coach Brandon Kreczmer said. “They’re the home team, and we’ve had a little bit of trouble on the road this year, but hopefully we can play our game like we did in the second half against Kewanee.”

All three of Newman’s losses came on the road this season, against Rockridge, St. Bede at Princeton – all playoff teams, incidentally.

The next town on the itinerary is Aledo, where the ninth-seeded Comets will take on No. 8 seed Mercer County in the first round of the Class 2A playoffs at 1 p.m. Saturday.

As always, the 8-9 matchup features a pair of teams that are pretty evenly matched.

But that second half against the TRAC East champion Boilermakers is the culmination of the past few weeks for the Comets, as they have really started to play their brand of football.

“Having the confidence of being able to start playing Blue Machine football the correct way is definitely going to have a big role in how we perform during the playoffs,” junior Hunter Luyando said. “The last few weeks, everything’s starting to get better and better, and hopefully we just keep building on that, keep coming together as a team and putting all the parts together.”

Luyando is one of six Newman backs to rush for more than 100 yards this season. Marcus Williams (46 rushes, 551 yards, 6 TDs) was the workhorse in the second half against Kewanee, carrying the ball 12 times for 118 yards and a touchdown, while Ethan Van Landuit (74-383, 5 TDs), Nolan Britt (39-302, 3 TDs) and Brennen Cook (61-284, 4 TDs) have also taken turns carrying the load.

Cody Donna has thrown for 378 yards and two scores, including the game-winner to Owen McBride with 6:37 to play against Kewanee. McBride (7 catches, 128 yards, TD) and Van Landuit (7-71) have been the top targets.

The key for the Comets on Saturday will be to have a few more drives like the two long time-consuming ones against Kewanee.

“We’ve just got to keep driving the ball like we did last week,” Luyando said. “They’ve got a pretty good D-line, so we’ve got to block for four seconds, do our jobs and play physical.

“Getting that big win over Kewanee definitely boosted everybody’s confidence a whole lot going into the playoffs.”

Mercer County is led by junior running back/linebacker David Meece, who has rushed for 1.270 yards and 14 touchdowns on 134 carries. Ryan Rillie has 46 carries for 250 yards and four scores, and quarterback Matthew Lucas has run for 241 yards and four TDs, and thrown for 480 yards and eight TDs, with four interceptions. Owen Relander (18 catches, 224 yards, 4 TDs) and Rillie (11 catches, 95 yards) led the receiving corps.

The Golden Eagles, led by former Polo coach Andrew Hofer, scored 32 points or more six times – all wins – and have high-water marks of 62 points in Week 5, 64 points in Week 7, and 54 points in Week 8.

“They’ve got some good backs, and their quarterback’s pretty good; we’ve just got to contain them,” Luyando said. “They’ve got a receiver who’s pretty good, too. We just have to be aggressive and play our assignments and we should be fine.”

The Golden Eagles have won five in a row, outscoring its opponents 248-52 in that span. Newman, meanwhile, has won four of its last five games, with a 113-38 scoring edge in the four victories. On the season, Mercer County has outscored its opponents 302-158; Newman holds a 195-138 scoring edge.

“We have a great respect for the Newman football program,” Hofer said. “They are a disciplined bunch that routinely plays hard and makes their opponents earn everything. Both teams have played well in the latter portion of the season. It should be a great contest and a great environment between two battle-tested teams.”

As one would expect with a pair of run-heavy offenses, this game will come down to the battle in the trenches – especially Newman’s defense against Mercer County’s offense.

“They’re very similar to us, and they’re playing their best football right now, just like we are,” Kreczmer said. “They’re a well-coached team, and Coach Hofer is doing a really god job over there. They run a few more formations than us, but they want to run the football and they’re going to try to control the line of scrimmage.

“Obviously that’s what we do too, so we’re going to have to match their physicality. Hopefully we’re able to run the ball on offense, and on defense, shut them down when they run the ball.”