Football Notebook: Seneca maintaining ‘step by step, stone by stone’ approach in breakthrough season

Seneca’s handling of Iroquois West in Gilman may have been the most decisive statement win across the state Friday night, firmly establishing the Fighting Irish as a team worthy of a spot in the Class 3A state rankings – likely a higher one than the tied-for-10th slot they held before Friday’s 35-0 victory over the No. 9 team in Class 1A on its home field.

Seneca fans already are eyeing a Week 8 visit to Clifton Central (4-1) as another potential statewide coming out party, but the Fighting Irish and head coach Terry Maxwell – while enjoying the attention and big-game feel – are doing their best not to look too far ahead.

“We had a good season in 2019, then we had a couple down seasons,” Maxwell said. “It’s nice to be playing in a big game like this again in Week 5. There are expectations, and there’s a little bit of hype. We talked all week about focusing on one game at a time and not looking ahead to any kind of postseason aspirations. Just step by step, stone by stone. We did a good job with that.

“Our saying for the week was ‘Pressure is a privilege.’ It’s a privilege to be in this spot, but the kids have earned it, and they handled it really well tonight.”

– J.T. Pedelty

Hope uses two styles to top Marquette

Teams often win because they either dominate the time of possession, grinding out lots of yards into touchdowns, or because they have held very little clock but scored quickly on big plays.

Last Friday No. 5-ranked Chicago Hope Academy used both to come away from its battle of undefeated teams against No. 10 ranked Marquette with a 40-25 win.

In the first half, Marquette ran 42 offensive plays [excluding kicks] and held on to the ball for about 20 minutes of the 24 first-half minutes, scoring three touchdowns. That means Hope had the ball for only 3:55 and ran only 13 plays, yet still managed a 25-21 lead on the Cru at the half thanks to lightning-quick TDs of 65, 84 and 73 yards.

The Eagles then switched gears, using the clock-eating power of fullbacks JaMarkus Lofton (5 carries, 74 yards in the second half) and Jaeveon Hilton (9 carries, 60 yards, 2 TDs) to protect and pad that lead, ending the second half with 31 plays to Marquette’s 14 and a 15:29-8:31 advantage in time of possession in those two quarters.

– Charlie Ellerbrock

Price continues strong play in Ottawa secondary

Senior defensive back Conner Price had another solid game for the Ottawa Pirates, intercepting a pair of passes despite Friday’s homecoming game loss to Kaneland.

Price’s first pick of the night came on the Knights’ second possession of the game when he outwrestled a Knights’ receiver for the ball just shy of the Ottawa end zone. He got his second interception and fifth of the season in the second quarter after a nice read and cut in front of the would-be receiver inside the Pirates’ 20.

Price now has 11 career interceptions with at least four games to play this season.

– Brian Hoxsey

Benning climbing closer to Streator record

With his 142 passing yards in Friday’s 38-22 Illinois Central Eight Conference loss at Manteno, Streator Bulldogs junior quarterback Christian Benning has climbed within one big game of breaking the program’s career passing yards record currently held by 2017 graduate John Benckendorf.

While awaiting the school’s official statistics, Benning’s career total stands at 1,972 yards, which would be 267 yards short of Benckendorf’s career total of 2,239.

Streator hosts Peotone Friday night before a last third of the season against the ICE Conference’s three top teams – at Reed-Custer, home versus Wilmington and home against Coal City.

– J.T. Pedelty

Marquette’s first loss? No problem

The Marquette Crusaders suffered a significant offensive collapse in Friday’s 40-25 loss at Chicago Hope Academy, but there’s no reason to panic considering Hope is the biggest, fastest, most complete team that Marquette not only will face this season, but that it also has seen in years.

After putting up 234 yards in the first two quarters at Altgeld Park, the locals managed only 23 in the final two. It didn’t help that the Cru had Jurnee Reed hobbled by an ankle injury the whole game and were without playmaker Logan Nelson, who suffered an ankle injury early in the second quarter.

Of slightly more concern is the defense that gave up 501 total yards, 14 plays of 10 yards or more and consistently looked overmatched by Hope’s blazing speed, something they aren’t likely to see in Week 6 at 3-2 LeRoy.

– Charlie Ellerbrock

Seneca continues its scoring surge, while defense earns another shutout

The season theme of putting up high-scoring numbers continued for Seneca in its 35-0 triumph over Iroquois West on Friday which gave the Fighting Irish program a first 5-0 start since 2000.

Seneca has 218 points so far, the most in five games since 1994 (185), and the 11th highest regular season scoring mark in program history according to The Times records that go back to 1981. The 1990 undefeated Class 2A champion team tops the list at 317.

The Irish defense held its opponent off the scoreboard for the second straight week, a first since the 2012 team blanked Reed-Custer (20-0) and Dwight (46-0) in Weeks 6 and 7.

– Brian Hoxsey