Friday Roundup: Seneca football tops Clifton Central; Somonauk soccer scores regional title

At Seneca, the Fighting Irish football team used a 22-point fourth quarter – touchdowns courtesy of Nathan Grant (7 yards), Brock Moore (1 yard) and Moore again (77 yards) – to defeat Clifton Central, 30-14, and move to 3-5 overall, 1-2 in the Vermilion Valley Football Alliance North.

Grant (3-yard run) also scored Seneca’s first-quarter TD. Seneca outgained Central 310-271 in yards from scrimmage, led by Collin Wright’s 117 yards on 24 carries and Moore’s 112 on 10 totes. Grant added 44 yards rushing for the Irish, who did not complete a pass.

Lane Provance with 1 1/2 tackles for loss and Asher Hamby with eight total tackles led the defense for Seneca, which closes the regular season Friday at Dwight.

Dee-Mack 36, Fieldcrest 0: At Veterans Park in Minonk, the Knights (0-8 overall, 0-4 Heart of Illinois Large) remained winless on the season with the loss to the Chiefs.

Marengo 43, Sandwich 21: At Sandwich, Marengo scored the night’s first 22 points and sustained a Sandwich rally – led by Seven Tornga touchdown runs of 10 and 2 yards – that made it a one-possession game to earn the KR/I8 Blue victory.

Sandwich (0-8, 0-5) was led by Tornga’s 29 carries for 181 yards and the two touchdowns. Dougie Taxis added 56 rushing yards, with Cainan Haick adding a 20-yard touchdown run.

The Indians are scheduled to close the season Friday at Rochelle.

BOYS SOCCER

Somonauk 3, Earlville 1: At the Class 1A Rock Island Alleman Regional championship game, the Bobcats won this rematch of the Little Ten Conference Tournament championship game.

Somonauk scored the game’s first two goals to take a 2-0 lead into the halftime break. Earlville cut it to 2-1 in the early minutes of the second half, but the Bobcats answered less than a minute later to retake control.

Somonauk advances on to the Chillicothe IVC Sectional, where it will play the winner of Saturday’s Quincy Notre Dame Regional title match, Monmouth-Roseville vs. the hosts, at 7 p.m.

Mendota 5, Serena 1: At the Class 1A Serena Regional championship game, Serena (13-6-1) took advantage of a counterattack opportunity to secure the game’s first goal and give Mendota its first deficit of the season, as Carson Baker took a pass from Richie Armour and snuck the ball past Mendota goalkeeper Manny Trejo with 27 minutes left in the first half.

Less than two minutes into the second half, the Huskers’ Tanner Faivre received a red card for a handball in the penalty area, forcing Serena to play with 10 players the rest of the way. Mendota’s Yahir Diaz was awarded a penalty kick, but the attempt sailed wide right. Diaz did find the back of the net with 21:11 to play, leveling the score at 1-1.

Another scramble in front of the net yielded a second goal for Diaz, as Mendota took the lead for the first time with 12:03 on the clock. Once they broke through, the Trojans (21-0) put the game out of reach with goals by Ricky Orozco and Johnathan Cortez just 56 seconds apart.

– Read Clark Teuscher’s full game story at mywebtimes.com.

Sophomore football

Kaneland 26, Ottawa 19: At King Field, the Corsairs scored in the first quarter on a 18-yard pass from Colby Mortenson to Packston Miller, in the second on an 18-yard run by Tristen Finely and in the third on a 73-yard kickoff return by Miller. Weston Averkamp had 19 carries for 85 yards, and Mortenson was 7-of-11 passing for 46 yards, including two catches by Luke Beaz for 17 yards. Nolan Chismarick had a team-best nine tackles for the OHS defense, while Cody Sprowls recorded a pair of sacks.