The Times Football Notebook: Week 1 saw strong performances, long streaks snapped

In an opening week to the high school football season that saw five of the seven teams in the Times’ coverage area – Streator, Sandwich, Seneca, Fieldcrest and Flanagan-Cornell/Woodland – record victories, eight local players rushed for more than 100 yards.

Flanagan-Cornell/Woodland’s Payton Quaintance led the way with 214 yards on 21 carries and four touchdowns in the Falcons’ 35-20 home win over defending Illinois 8-Man Football Association champion West Central.

Also passing the century mark were Sandwich’s Simeion Harris (18 carries, 178 yards, 2 TDs) and Nick Michalek (14-119), Streator’s Christian Benning (19-177-4), Ottawa’s Ryder Miller (20-156-1), Seneca’s Nathan Grant (113 yards) and Nathan Neal (109 yards, TD) and Fieldcrest’s Eddie Lorton (111 yards, 3 TDs).

— Brian Hoxsey

It’d been awhile for Fieldcrest

Walking through the handshake line after Friday’s game, Fieldcrest coach Nick Meyer soaked in the scene following his first career coaching victory at his alma mater.

“It meant a lot,” said Meyer, who is in his second year leading the Knights. “It didn’t really sink in until after the game going through the handshake line. I looked around and saw a lot of guys I played with or guys I watched play and the guys who coach with me. It felt so great for the community.

“It was a hot game, but you wouldn’t know it. The fans were there right until the very end.”

When the Knights held on to beat Dwight 20-19, it wasn’t just a milestone win for Meyer.

It was an important win for the program as well, as it snapped a 17-game on-field losing streak for the Knights. Fieldcrest’s last nonforfeit victory was a 45-14 win over El Paso-Gridley on April 9, 2021.

“We told the kids it was the culmination of two years of hard work and buying into the system that was maybe unfamiliar to them,” Meyer said. “They committed to the process.

“It’s good to get a win. It’s hard to get a win in football. For them, it shows what we’re doing can work. It was by no means a perfect game, but an ugly win is still a win, and we’ll take it. It lets the kids know, ‘Hey, we worked hard for this, we earned this.’

“It was good to finally see on the scoreboard that we came out on top. We have to keep working hard the next eight weeks. It will not be easy.”

— Kevin Chlum

Bulldogs-Raiders a record-breaking show

It wasn’t pretty early, but by the final horn, Friday’s East Peoria at Streator season opener – a 74-29 Streator victory – was a record-breaker.

Per Streator statistician Jeff Arenz, the Bulldogs’ 74 points scored are the most Streator has ever put up in a game, breaking the previous record from 1920 when the Bulldogs blanked Ottawa 67-0. The 103 combined points is also a school record.

The game also had one other distinction. It was the highest-scoring game in the state for Week 1.

The Bulldogs rang up 530 yards from scrimmage, led by senior quarterback Christian Benning’s 279 yards and four touchdowns passing along with 177 yards and four more TDs rushing.

“I think everyone knows he’s a great athlete,” Streator coach Kyle Tutt said of his quarterback, “and we’re going to put the ball in his hands, and he’s going to make the right decisions a lot of the time. Of course, there are some things we can clean up. We’re going to get back on film and make sure we do clean that all up.”

— J.T. Pedelty

Marquette’s no-shutout streak ends

While the Marquette Crusaders’ 42-0 season-opening loss at Aurora Christian was disappointing, it also was somewhat historic.

The last time head coach Tom Jobst’s program was blanked was in its Big Rivers Conference days, when it fell to Port Byron Riverdale 45-0 in Week 7 on Oct. 7, 2011. They also were shut out 49-0 by Newman Central Catholic in Week 5 that season.

Since then, the Crusaders had played 114 consecutive games without being shut out until Friday in Aurora. They had a 96-18 record in those games.

On the other side, the Crusaders have posted 28 shutouts of their opponents since they were last shutout.

Take away three Cru 1-0 forfeit victories – Sept. 21, 2018, against Rockford Sacred Heart, Oct. 4, 2019, over the River Valley co-op and Oct. 14, 2022, against Chicago Christ the King – and Marquette has scored a low of seven points three times, all in the postseason.

Those were in a memorable, snowy 10-7 loss to Stark County on Nov. 22, 2015, at Dunlap; in a 35-7 loss to Forreston on Nov. 19, 2016, in Ottawa; and in a 42-7 home loss to Forreston on Nov. 2, 2019, at Gould Stadium.

— Charlie Ellerbrock

Irish victory snaps long skid versus Wildcats

Seneca’s Week 1 win over old Interstate 8 Conference foe Wilmington wasn’t a shocking upset – in fact, Friday Night Drive correctly called a Fighting Irish victory in our Week 1 preview – but like Seneca’s shutout of Iroquois West last season, it opened eyes across the state.

It also snapped a long losing streak for the Fighting Irish against the powerhouse Wildcats.

Before Friday, the two teams hadn’t met on a football field since 2017. Seneca left the I-8 for the Sangamon Valley Conference in 2018-19 and remained in different variations of that league until helping form the Chicagoland Prairie this season.

Seneca had lost to Wilmington in the previous 16 meetings, the last Seneca victory coming Oct. 12, 2001, in a 25-7 triumph, which all but clinched the I-8 title that season and also secured a fourth-consecutive playoff spot.

— Brian Hoxsey & J.T. Pedelty