Farmers, Princes, Trojans all win
By JEFF LAMPE
For The Weekly Post
GALESBURG – Fourth down plays decided a hard-hitting season opener between the Farmington and Knoxville football teams Saturday.
Three times Farmington quarterback Josh McMillin managed to complete touchdown passes on fourth-down plays to account for his team’s scoring.
And with the game on the line, Farmington’s defense stopped Knoxville on fourth-and-three from the Farmington 26-yard line with under a minute left to preserve a 20-14 win. The game was played at Galesburg’s F&M Stadium due to wet conditions on Knoxville’s field.
The Farmers defense also came up big in the first half after Knoxville had grabbed an 8-0 lead. With the Blue Bullets driving, Kevin Shultz blitzed on a pass attempt and forced a fumble that the Farmers recovered.
“It was a dominating first quarter and a half for them and we felt like we were in trouble,” Farmington Coach Toby Vallas said. “That gave us a spark.”
From there, McMillin tossed his first TD to Riley Embry over the middle on a 22-yard post pattern on fourth-and-8. While the conversation failed, Farmington was back in the game.
“It was almost halftime and I looked at one of my assistants and said, ‘This is the worst we can play and we’re still in it,’” Vallas said.
Better than that, Farmington got the ball back and McMillin hooked up on another big fourth-down conversion. This time the senior QB threw to Ethan Evans on a post pattern that went for 45 yards and gave Farmington a 12-8 lead 18 seconds before intermission.
“I think if we had a young team we might have folded up [early in the game],” Vallas said. “But because they are older, they felt like we were in it and they kept at it.”
After Knoxville scored in the third quarter, Farmington answered in the fourth – once again on fourth down. This time McMillin found senior Ty Anderson on a 40-yard fade route for the score.
From there, Farmington made its big stand on a fourth-and-three run and then ran out the clock.
“We were just happy to get there and get out of there with a win. They are good and physical and it was a hard-hitting game for sure,” Vallas said. “If it was a weightlifting contest, I know we would have lost.”
Instead, Farmington had enough speed and seniors to make the most of the artificial turf at Galesburg.
“I think both teams really struggled on offense,” Vallas said. “And we had a lot of our senior guys who really stepped up and played well for us.”
He praised senior Drew Vawter, who overcame a rough beginning in his first start at center to play well, and Wyatt Perkins, who switched from cornerback to linebacker and guard, and Dridyn Lewis, who missed all but one game last season after breaking his leg in practice. Lewis was second on the team with 10.5 tackles. Shultz had 11.
Lewis also led with 24 rushing yards, though Vallas said that’s an area the Farmers will need to work on. McMillin finished 10-for-20 with one interception for 178 yards.
“He played well,” Vallas said. “A year ago he went [to Knoxville] and turned the ball over a whole lot. This time he did a nice job of playing within himself and playing within the system.”
Farmington is home against Macomb, which opened with a 30-20 win over West Prairie.
“They’ve got a few real big kids and some fast kids,” Vallas said.
Elmwood-Brimfield 40
West Hancock 6
ELMWOOD – One year ago, seeing an opponent pick up an onside kick and score on the first possession might have been problematic.
One year ago, West Hancock’s Grant Sullivan might have crossed the goal line on what looked to be a sure touchdown run in the second quarter, instead of being stripped at the 1-yard-line.
Not this year. Elmwood-Brimfield (1-0) answered West Hancock’s opening drive with two scores, one a 6-yard run by Max Thompson the other an 8-yard run by Westin McCormick. And instead of West Hancock scoring on that run near the goal line, Thompson punched the ball out and recovered – sparking an 80-yard drive to end the first half that put E-B up 20-6 on a 1-yard run by Hunter Damron.
No question, this is a new year for E-B, which ran for 332 yards and 6.9 per carry and got 124 rushing yards from elusive senior Craig Ramirez.
“It felt good, and it’s been awhile since we felt that,” E-B Coach Todd Hollis said. “As the night went on, our offensive line really started to figure some things out. It’s cool to see when you can make adjustments during a game.”
While E-B piled up rushing yards, league newcomer West Hancock never even threatened in the second half, finishing with most of its 186 total yards in the first quarter.
“We had guys swarming to the ball,” Hollis said. “There were guys around the ball all the time.”
Senior Sam Rushing led with eight tackles and McCormick added 7.5 for the Trojans.
The only bad news for E-B came after the win, when it was learned that a COVID-19 case and subsequent contact tracing sidelined enough players that this Friday’s game with Knoxville had to be called off. E-B also had its JV game last week called off for COVID issues and dressed just 21 players last Friday.
Hollis said coaches and players will continue to practice “virtually” during their quarantine and he hopes to be able to reschedule the Trojans’ April 2 game vs. West Prairie.
Princeville 12
Mercer County 8
ALEDO – So much for the usual ground-and-pound Princeville attack. For the first time in Jon Caruthers’ career as head coach of the Princes, his team won without scoring on a rushing touchdown.
Instead, Princeville relied on two long scoring passes by senior Sam Streitmatter to get past a physical Mercer County squad that was bent on stopping the Princeville run.
“They were physical up front and definitely took the run away from us,” Carruthers said. “So we had to open it up a little bit and luckily we had the capability to make some big plays.”
Streitmatter’s first scoring pass came at the end of the first half on a rollout play in which he bought time and then lofted a 45-yard bomb to Denver Hoerr in the end zone.
“Denver got behind their cornerback and Sam slung it down there,” Carruthers said. “It was a heckuva coaching job: Just throw it really far and catch it.”
Down 8-6 after the half, Princeville scored again in the third quarter as Streitmatter again scrambled to buy time, then found Grant Hunt open. Hunt did most of the work on the 74-yard score, running after the catch to put the Princes up for good. Streitmatter finished 6-of-13 passing for 148 yards and one interception.
From there, it was up to the Princeville defense, which limited Mercer County to 239 total yards.
“I was very happy with the defense,” Carruthers said. “Our three down linemen really executed the gameplan well, taking up most of their defensive linemen so our linebackers could run free. They were dead tired by the end, because a lot of our linemen are playing both ways. They just gutted it out.
“Early in the season like this, defenses are going to be ahead of offenses with the short amount of prep time we’ve had.”
Princeville was also happy to add an opponent this week, since Mid-County is unable to play while players undergo COVID quarantine.
On Sunday, Carruthers got a call from Knoxville, after the Blue Bombers learned their game with Elmwood was off. By Monday evening, the schedule had been altered, bringing Knoxville to Princeville this Friday at 7 p.m. – a precursor to Knoxville’s switch to the Lincoln Trail Conference this fall.
“They are big, strong and physical,” Carruthers said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us.”
Mid-County
Mid-County’s game with Monmouth United was cancelled for COVID-19 concerns.
Mid-County will also not be able to play Friday against Princeville, but plays its first varsity game on Thursday, April 1, at Stark County.
