STREATOR – With 1:39 remaining in Friday’s season opener at the SHS Athletic Fields and his Bulldogs having just made a huge defensive stand to take possession with a two-point advantage, second-year Streator head coach Kyle Tutt called a timeout to talk things over.

“We’re there,” Tutt said he told his team. “We have every opportunity. This is what you fought for, what we work for every day.

“If you want it, you go get it.”

One play later, running back Darryl Gullens ripped off a 14-yard run to ice a 14-12 Streator victory over visiting East Peoria, the Bulldogs’ first win since Week 4 of the 2019 season and their first home triumph since defeating East Peoria to kick off that season.

The offense set the stage for the victory on a muggy night, scoring on a weaving 28-yard run from Gullens midway through the first quarter and a 5-yard touchdown plunge up the gut from the thunder to Gullens’ lightning, fellow senior Seth Miles, midway through the second quarter, with Gullens running in the conversion.

The game was really won, however, by the Bulldogs’ defense.

Jeremiah Brown’s interception of what would have been a game-tying, two-point conversion pass with 4:27 left before halftime preserved what turned out – after a plodding, scoreless second half – to be the final score. Linebacker Seth Miles recorded a key tackle for a loss to halt a drive in the third quarter, and linebacker Jake Luckey’s two sacks of East Peoria quarterbacks late in each half all but guaranteed the Bulldogs would close both the first and second half ahead 14-12.

“We just had to get things going,” Luckey said. “[East Peoria] had momentum on us, and we had to get it back. We did on that [second-half] play. Everyone did their part. Everyone.”

Streator’s defense as a unit limited the Raiders (0-1) to 131 yards from scrimmage and only 3.1 yards a carry, with Kenyon Carlton’s 48 yards leading the team. East Peoria’s two second-quarter touchdowns were the result of an extremely short field, as in first-and-goal from the Bulldogs’ 4-yard line short – and Gabe Zeigler-Harris’ 81-yard kickoff return.

“I put a lot on [defensive] coach [Ben] Huff over the summer and on the defense,” Tutt said. “We had to put it all on them today. They did an excellent job coming up with big play after big play.

“We put them in a lot of bad positions, and they only gave up one score. You can’t ask for anything better than what Coach Huff and all those guys were able to do today.”

Streator’s offense didn’t do an incredible amount itself, finishing with 250 yards from scrimmage and negative-1 passing yard in sophomore quarterback Christian Benning’s first start behind center. But it did enough to get the lead and then churn up clock and yards in the second half led by the running of Miles (11 carries, 73 yards) and Gullens (13 carries, 96 yards).

“It’s been a while since we got a win, and it feels really great,” Gullens said. “I hope a lot more come. “(Miles) is more of a powerhouse running back, and I just get the yards I can.”

Aneefy Ford and Cade Stevens added 38 yards each on arguably what was Streator’s most successful play call of the night, jet sweeps.

Jenson Ketcham had a pass defensed, Austin Taylor and Gullens combined on a quarterback sack, Miles finished with 1 1/2 tackles for loss, and Sergio Brown and Tyler Luckey each recorded TFLs for the Bulldogs defense in Tutt’s first head coaching win.

“Good,” he answered when asked how it feels. “It feels good for the kids, mainly.”

Streator (1-0) will visit Ottawa (1-0) next Friday in the resumption of the state’s third-oldest high school football rivalry, one dating back to 1894. It will be the Route 23 rivals’ first meeting since 2013.