The Times Week 3 Football Notebook: Ottawa, Seneca piling up points; pivotal plays in wins for Marquette, Streator

Ottawa scored 49 points in the opening half on the way to a dominating 63-0 victory over host Harvard this past Friday. A look back into The Times archives reveals:

• The 63 points scored by the Pirates were the most in a game since they topped Kewanee 64-8 in Week 6 of the 1969 season. The 63-point margin of victory was the largest since Week 7 of the 1966 campaign when Ottawa blasted Sterling 65-0.

• All told, it was the 11th time in program history a Pirates squad posted 60-plus more points in a game.

• For the Ottawa all-time record for most points in a game, you have to go back to 1919. Not only did the Pirates post 92-0 wins over both Pontiac (Week 5) and Hall (Week 9), they overwhelmed Lockport in Week 7 by the count of 131-0, with Harold Woodward scoring six touchdowns and kicking 14 extra points.

• Ottawa’s 118 points scored in the opening three games of the season are the most since the 2012 club registered 141, while the 26 allowed in the same time frame is the fewest since the 22 allowed in 2015.

— Brian Hoxsey

Streator’s fourth-down play call keeps winning drive alive

Trailing by four points and facing a fourth-and-4 against host Herscher with four minutes remaining and the ball just inside Tigers territory, Streator needed a big play.

“We took a timeout because we didn’t like the look Herscher’s defense was in for what we had initially called for on that fourth-down play,” Streator head coach Kyle Tutt said. “Matt Williamson said to me in the huddle, ‘Coach, give me that route back, and I’ll get us the first down’ referring to the play on second down that didn’t click. [Quarterback] Christian [Benning] looked at him and said, ‘Let’s do it.’ ”

On the play, Benning rolled to his left behind solid blocking and delivered a perfect pass to Williamson, who had beaten his defender on an out route near the sidelines for a 7-yard gain to move the chains and keep what proved to be the game-winning drive alive.

It was the seventh catch of the night for Williamson.

“I was onboard with the call all the way, especially seeing the confidence in both of their eyes,” Tutt said. “They are the ones playing the game, and I feel as coaches there are times you have to let your players own the game. I felt like that was their call and their time.”

Eight plays later, Benning ran it in from the 5 to give the Bulldogs the lead for good.

— Brian Hoxsey

Key early sequence put Marquette in control

The 28-0 final score may not lead one to believe it, but early on in Marquette’s win over Deer Creek-Mackinaw, the Crusaders found themselves in a bit of trouble.

Taking the opening kickoff, the Dee-Mack defense — led by a Conner Huff sack of Cru QB Alex Graham — forced Marquette into a three-and-out punt from its own 18-yard line. The Chiefs took over at the hosts’ 35-yard line and looked to be in business at the Marquette 23 after a first down until Logan Nelson penetrated the backfield and forced a Lucas Blumeyer fumble, recovered by Tommy Durdan.

The Crusaders then pieced together an eight-play, 72-yard drive punctuated by a 15-yard Durdan run to paydirt, and Marquette never looked back on its way to 3-0.

“You always want to make hay on a turnover,” Crusaders coach Tom Jobst said. “You certainly don’t want to give a team a second chance. If you let ‘em off the hook, then they’re dangerous.

“Our kids stayed true to their assignments and just did a great job.”

— J.T. Pedelty

Far more pluses than minuses for Ottawa

It’s safe to say that Ottawa coach Chad Gross was not happy with the fact his team was flagged seven times for 80 yards in Friday’s 63-0 win over Harvard. One of those miscues cost the club an 83-yard kickoff return TD by sophomore Julian Alexander to start the second half.

But when an offense attack averages 21.4 yards per on just 22 offensive plays and totals 281 ground yards on only 13 carries (21.6 per rush), backed by a defense that allowed just 19 passing yards, gave up three plays of more than 10 yards and forced 12 plays for negative yards, that more than overshadows those penalties.

“I really thought our kids came out more aggressively this week,” Gross said. “At Streator, we started out a bit on our heels, a big rivalry game when Streator hit us in the mouth and we responded, but tonight we started fast and did what we wanted to do, and I’m really happy with that.”

— Charlie Ellerbrock

Seneca’s scoring a key in going from 0-3 to 3-0

The Seneca Fighting Irish have scored 121 points in the opening three games of the 2022 season, which is their most since 1994 when they were also 3-0 after topping Sandwich (50-13), St. Bede (32-6) and Coal City (34-0). Seneca finished that ‘94 season with an undefeated regular season, finishing 10-1 after a second-round playoff loss to Marquette.

This is the program’s first 3-0 start since 2014. Last season, the Irish started 0-3.

— Brian Hoxsey