East Side drops Belleville East, West ends streak and Althoff wins the Holy War
Friday was another busy night of high school football in the metro-east.
Belleville East hosted East St. Louis, Althoff entertained Mater Dei, and Belleville West traveled north to Alton. Here is a roundup of how each team fared:
MATER DEI AT ALTHOFF
The Crusaders overcame an early 14-0 deficit to post a 58-35 homecoming victory against the visiting Knights. Althoff, which won its second straight game, improved to 4-3.
“It was our homecoming week. With that, there’s some inherent risk of focus issues. Despite our best efforts, we came out a little flat,” said Crusaders coach Austin Frazier, whose team defeated Collinsville 16-14 last week on a late goal by sophomore Austin Wilkinson. “But I am proud of them. We faced that adversity early but put ourselves in check and things got a lot better pretty quickly in the second quarter.”
Frazier highlighted several key performers, including junior kicker Jacob Hug, who was thrust into action and helped Althoff convert a successful onside kick in the third quarter that led to what was likely the game-clinching touchdown.
“Hug got that onside kick and we scored again to kind of put it away. They never got closer than three scores after that,” Frazier said.
Frazier also noted big performances from junior quarterback Ellington, who threw for three touchdowns and 250 yards while also rushing for another score. His favorite target was sophomore Eli Collins, who caught touchdown passes of 31, 41 and 79 yards.
Meanwhile, running backs Stephen Brown, a junior, and Jay Crumble Jr., a sophomore, combined for more than 200 yards rushing. Brown finished with three touchdowns, while Crumble Jr. posted two rushing scores.
“We had huge success on the ground,” Frazier said. “We had a lot of key contributors on offense. I’m really happy with the offense bouncing back where we didn’t take advantage of the big play opportunities we had the last two weeks, and we did that tonight.”
The Crusaders remain on track for a postseason berth, needing just one victory to become playoff eligible. Their first chance will be at St. Mary’s (Mo.) at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17. Althoff then wraps up the regular season at 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17, at Maple Park Kaneland.
“I had an old football coach tell me football is three, three-week seasons, and if you win two of those, you get bonus football,” Frazier said. “We’re in our third season of that now, and we’re 1-0 and we’ll start working on St. Mary’s tomorrow. I think we’ll keep our same mantra of getting better each day. We know we have a ton of capability. Being kind of a young group, I think they’re starting to trust each other.”
Frazier is excited to see how the rest of the season unfolds.
“I think the big thing we’re taking away is we still haven’t put a game together on all three sides — offense, defense and special teams,” he said. “Last week the defense was great, but the offense struggled. This week, we exploded on offense, and the defense struggled. I wouldn’t want to be the team who faces us when we put all three phases of the game together. It could be pretty special.”
Mater Dei, coming off a 48-8 victory against Miller Career, fell to 2-5. The Knights resume action at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17, at home against Decatur St. Teresa.
BELLEVILLE WEST AT ALTON
The Maroons ended a three-game losing streak with a resounding 57-13 road win against the Redbirds. West improved to 3-4 overall and 1-3 in Southwestern Conference play.
West, coming off a 46-30 home loss to O’Fallon, led 37-7 at halftime and rolled to victory.
“We didn’t play well last week,” Maroons coach Ken Turner said. “We had five starters out last week, and we got those guys back and were able to do what we wanted to do. We wanted to come out and do things the right way. We weren’t going to worry about the score, but just worry about doing things the right way.
“We wanted to play our best, and the guys did a great job. We executed on both sides of the ball on offense and defense and then on special teams, too. We did what we wanted to do.”
University of Illinois recruit Nick Hankins, a senior, keyed West’s attack, returning a punt for a touchdown and posting two other scores, while Turner said junior quarterback Caiden Capell also had a big game. On defense, senior Freddie Perry posted two of the Maroons’ three interceptions.
“We needed this win,” Hankins said. “The defense had three interceptions and came up big. Special teams was huge. The offense scored like we always do. The energy was great tonight.”
The Maroons remained in playoff contention, needing victories in the final two weeks to secure a playoff berth. The first step is a showdown at home with crosstown rival Belleville East at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17, in the Southwestern Conference finale for both teams.
“We have to get every game to try to make the playoffs,” Turner said. “We had to win tonight and now have to get ready for next week’s game. It’s the next game on the schedule, the next game we have to win to try to make the playoffs. It means a little bit more because of the rivalry and with it being Senior Night.
“It will be big, but we can’t think of the rivalry. We have to think about what we have to do on offense, defense and special teams to get the win.”
Added Hankins, “It’s a very big game. I think we can win. I think most any game we’ve played this season we could have won if not for the simple mistakes we made. It’s a very winnable game for us. I think we’ll bring a lot of energy into Senior Night against Belleville East.”
Alton, coming off a 47-6 loss to East, dropped to 0-6, 0-3. The Redbirds conclude league action at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17, at Edwardsville.
EAST ST. LOUIS AT BELLEVILLE EAST
The Lancers fell to 5-2 overall and 2-2 in Southwestern Conference play following a 55-7 loss to the Flyers. East trailed 21-7 before East St. Louis pulled away, scoring the final 34 points.
“Obviously they’re a pretty good ball team,” said East coach Michael Harrison, whose squad defeated Alton 47-6 in Week 6. “We just couldn’t do enough. We had a good drive going early in the game, but then we committed a penalty and got put behind the chains and they turned around and scored quickly. It was one of those avalanche effects where one thing happens and then two or three things happen right after that.
“We needed to stop the bleeding and put points on the board and tonight we were not able to do that.”
Despite the outcome, Harrison highlighted his team’s ability to occasionally move the ball.
“We were able at times to get downhill and put a couple of plays together and put a couple of drives together,” he said. “At times, we got the looks we wanted and were able to put some positive plays together. We had a couple of looks we really liked but were not able to take advantage of them; for instance, we dropped a deep ball.
“That’s what happens when you play a good football team. They put a lot of pressure on you and make you press a little bit, and it’s on you to respond. And tonight, I don’t think we did a good job of responding after they scored.”
East now sets its sights on West. Harrison is well aware West needs to win to remain in playoff contention and recognizes his team has a stern test forthcoming.
“We’ve got a big game next week,” he said. “We need to put this one behind us and get ready for West. West has playoff hopes, and if we don’t do what we’re supposed to do and end up letting the East St. Louis loss tonight affect us ... we can’t do that. West has a good ball club. Coach Turner is doing a great job.
“We have our work cut out for us. Obviously, we have to fix our mistakes. But I think our guys are a little bit embarrassed by tonight and ready to get this bad taste out of our mouth. Hopefully, we’ll play a little better.”
The Flyers, coming off a 54-6 win at Edwardsville, won their fourth straight game while improving to 5-2 overall and 4-0 in league play. East St. Louis concludes league action at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17, at home against O’Fallon.