Camp Point Central knows it has its hands full with Althoff’s offense in 1A semifinal

Only one thing stands between the Althoff Catholic football team and a trip to the IHSA Class 1A championship game next weekend: the Camp Point Central Panthers.

Althoff Catholic will host Camp Point Central at 2 p.m. Saturday in a Class 1A semifinal matchup. The winner advances to next Friday’s championship game at Hancock Stadium on the Illinois State University campus.

Leroy and Lena Winslow will square off in the other semifinal.

Althoff Catholic (12-0) enters the semifinals on a roll, having scored 157 points and averaging 52.3 points per game, including a 54-7 rout of Casey-Westfield in the quarterfinals last week.

“I think in the past couple of weeks we’re getting better each week,” Althoff coach Austin Frazier said. “I thought we played well in that first half against Carrollton and improved in all three phases going into Casey-Westfield. We’ve been really detailed in our preparation.”

Camp Point Central (12-1), the No. 3 seed in Class 1A, will be looking to end the Crusaders season for the second straight year; the Panthers knocked Althoff out of the playoffs in 2023.

Saturday’s meeting will mark the fourth time the two schools have met in the postseason since 2012.

“Their strength of schedule and the athletes they have make them a big challenge,” Camp Point coach Brad Dixon said of the Crusaders. “They’re probably as talented as any 1A team we’ve faced all time.”

The Panthers’ ground-based, double-wing offense is led by senior quarterback/fullback Elijah Gennenbacher (947 yards rushing, 505 yards passing, 20 touchdowns), junior fullback Kade Niekamp (649 yards, 9 touchdowns), and senior wingback Nate Peters (351 yards, 9 touchdowns).

Gennenbacher, who is an all-state selection (128 tackles) leads the Panthers’ defense at middle linebacker, along with Niekamp (92 tackles, 8 sacks) on the defensive line, and junior linebacker Zack Wear (70 tackles) leads the Panthers defense.

Dixon said his Panthers will try to shorten the game with a ball-control offense and, on the defensive side of the line, limit the Crusaders’ big play ability.

“Against a team of this caliber, we’ve got to take care of the ball,” Dixon said. “We’ve got to make them earn it and then when we have the ball we’ve got to control it, try to go on some nice long drives, and make sure we punch it in, obviously.”

On offense, the Crusaders want to continue to light up the scoreboard with playmakers such as senior running back Dierre Hill Jr. (1,832 yards and 29 touchdowns), senior wideout Charleston Coldon (766 yards and 12 touchdowns), sophomore quarterback Jayden Ellington (1,869 yards passing, 31 touchdowns, 4 interceptions), and sophomore running back Steven Brown (464 yards and six touchdowns).

The Crusaders defense is led by senior linebacker Drake Mosley (71 tackles), senior linebacker Cooper Zimmer (62 tackles), defensive back Baron Vaughn (61 tackles), and senior all-state defensive lineman Jason Dowell (58 tackles, 10.5 sacks).

“It’s s about the details, Frazer said. “For us, effort, physicality, and enthusiasm have to be given and we have to be really detail-oriented in our preparation. If we are, we have a shot to be successful on Saturday.”