Football Playoffs 2022

By Travis Zuellig For the Journal Courier

Northwestern football team is back in a familiar spot — hosting an IHSA Class 1A playoff game.

Tigers have earned a spot in the playoffs in nine of the past 10 seasons, minus 2020, and have played host in an opening-round matchup in the past two seasons. Both were wins.

Greenfield-NW (8-1) comes into the playoffs with its highest win total under head coach Joe Pembrook after winning the WIVC-South. The Tigers will host Calhoun (5-4) Saturday. The two teams played earlier in the season, with the Tigers winning, 14-7.

have had a really good season. I think we have accomplished a lot

of our long-term goals throughout the course of the season,” Pembrook said. “We want to be playing our best football coming into the playoffs and our guys understand those things. We have overcome some injuries and created some depth throughout the course of the year and right now, we are really happy with what we have accomplished in the first nine weeks.”

The Tigers opened the season with eight straight wins before falling to Routt in Week 9. Included in that win streak were victories over Beardstown, Triopia and North Greene heading into the Calhoun game in Week 4. Garrett Costello returned the opening kickoff 74 yards for a touchdown to give Greenfield-NW the initial lead. Greenfield-

Tigers roar into postseason Greenfield-Northwestern football coach Joe Pembrook talks to his team after practice earlier this season. (Dennis Mathes/Journal-Courier)

NW trailed for most of the second half before driving the ball down the field late in the fourth quarter. The Tigers had first-and-goal at the 1-yard line and needed all four downs before Kohen Vetter punched it for the winning score with 1:39

remaining. The 14 points was the least amount scored by the Tigers in a game this season.

“It was a back-and-forth battle — a very physical game,” the coach said. “They are well-coached and run a very unique style of offense you don’t

see very often. They really challenge you in terms of staying disciplined and assignment football. You have to win a lot of oneon-one battles. I thought they outplayed us for portions of that game.”

Greenfield-NW has been strong on both

sides of the ball this year, scoring a division-high 348 points and allowing only 87 points. Only Camp Point Central was the only team in the WIVC-North to score more than 300 points while allowing less than 100 points. On offense,

Pembrook said his team can attack opponents in many different ways.

Just like the first matchup between the two teams in Week 4, Pembrook said his team will have to stay very disciplined in a game he is expecting to be physical.

“I think we will have to win both sides of the line of scrimmage by being physical up front, trying to win that battle and take away some of the things they do best, which is an extremely solid run game,” Pembrook said.

Greenfield-Northwestern players run a play during practice earlier this season.

(Dennis Mathes/Journal-Courier)

Home sweet home field for Routt

By Dennis Mathes Journal Courier

Barack Obama was in the second year of his presidency. The swine flu pandemic was creating something of a panic. Lady Gaga wore a dress made out of meat. And TikTok didn’t exist yet, but TiK ToK was

one of the top songs of the year. OK, 2010 wasn’t all that long ago. But in football years, 12 years is a lifetime. And 2010 was the last time the Routt football team hosted a playoff game. So to say Routt is excited about hosting a game in the 2022 playoffs would be a major

understatement.

“Home game. First round. One o’clock. Saturday. Freesen Field,” Routt coach Barry Creviston said.

Many of the players on this year’s team were 5 years old the last time Routt hosted a playoff game.

“It’s been awhile. It’s been awhile,” Creviston

said. “Everybody’s excited. From the players, students, faculty, the Routt community. We’re ecstatic to be in this position. The kids have earned it by all their hard work throughout the whole year.”

Routt (7-2) earned the home game with an upset win over previously

undefeated, and stateranked, GreenfieldNorthwestern.

“We talked to the kids. If you want a home game, you have to win,” Creviston said. “And that was their motivation, I think. They went out and they wanted to have a home game on the home field in front of our

crowd, and we’ll take our chances against anybody.”

On the opposite sideline Saturday will be Villa Grove and former Routt head coach Heath Wilson, who finished 6-39 in five years as the Rockets’ head coach as the team struggled with numbers. Wilson was instrumental in forming

Routt’s Aiden Lahey takes off during a football game against Camp Point Central earlier this season. (Dennis Mathes/Journal-Courier)

the co-op with Springfield Lutheran, which has paid off this year for the Rockets.

Routt is familiar with the Villa Grove coach. Two of Creviston’s three assistant coaches played for Wilson. And Kyle Graham was was one of his assistant coaches.

Although he didn’t get many wins in Jacksonville, Wilson is 1-0 against Creviston. Routt beat North Greene in overtime in Creviston’s first game at White Hall.

What can Routt expect from Villa Grove?

“They look a lot like us,” Creviston said. “They might be a little smaller than us up front, but I think they’re just as fast as us, so it should be a great matchup. And it’s going to be a beautiful day. And it’ll be a good game.”

Junior Layne Rund is Villa Grove’s quarterback. Through eight games, he had thrown for 1,517 yards, including 19 touchdowns.

Brady Clodfelder is the team’s top receiver, with 38 catches for 649 yards and nine TDs.

The Blue Devils’ top running back is Luke Zimmerman, who has 680 yards and nine touchdowns. Rund had rushed for 250 yards.

Routt doesn’t play many teams that run a spread offense, but the Rockets know how to defend against it.

“It’s kind of like, if we were a wing-T team, and you see it every day in practice, we would defend the wing-T a little bit better,” Creviston

said. “But we’re a spread team, and when spread teams come against us, I think it’s to our benefit because our defense sees it every day in practice.”

Routt had to work to beat Greenfield-Northwestern. Moving Michael Wilson from noseguard to tackle in the second half helped the Rockets slow the Tigers’ rushing attack. “If it takes two people to block Michael, that frees up Will Jackson,” Creviston said.

With the score still tied late in the third quarter, a 69-yard punt by Routt’s Dax Baptist that was downed at the 1-yard line was a gamechanger. Routt held, and the Tigers punted from the end zone to set up a short field for the Rockets. Jackson scored on a two-yard run early in the fourth, then later scored from the 1 to put the game out of reach.

“I really knew over the summer that we could be special with all the weapons we have,” Creviston said.

“To have four quality receivers … six, really -- two just haven’t even really gotten any time. And then Will Jackson back, motivated. Kohen Hoots back, motivated. All five linemen have played every game all year. That’s the recipe and equation for a good year.”

Creviston said his team is playing well going into the postseason.

“When you talk about teams that are headed into the playoffs, you want to be healthy, you want to be

– obviously – on a winning streak and just moving in the right direction for the postseason, and we can check mark all those boxes,” he said.

“And we’re all excited to move on to the next step. Nobody on our team has been to the playoffs, so I’m kind of just helping to guide, and let them know what to

expect.

“Everybody’ll be fired up,” the coach said. “It’s a long week. But we’re used to playing on Saturdays, so we’re not going to change

anything that we do. We’re just going to treat it like a normal week, because hopefully we’re going to be doing this for a few more weeks.”

Routt’s Will Jackson (left) takes a handoff from quarterback Kohen Hoots during a football game earlier this year. (Dennis Mathes/Journal-Courier)

Plan comes together for Crimsons

By Dennis Mathes Journal Courier

Sometimes, as they say, everything will work out if you just have faith.

The Jacksonville football team came into the 2022 season with an almost entirely new defense, a brand new offensive line, and a plan to abandon the offense the Crimsons have run for years and go to something completely different.

And yet, here the Crimsons are, back in the playoffs for the second straight year after a thrilling 6-3 season.

Jacksonville, the No. 9 seed in its half of the playoff bracket, will go on the road to play No. 8 seed Metamora in the first round. Kickoff is at 2 p.m. Saturday.

“We were just a couple of playoff points away from hosting,” Jacksonville coach Mark Grounds said. “It’s one of the higher seeds that we’ve had in a long time, and it’s a credit to the team and the progress they made throughout the year. Excited about playing somebody outside of the conference.

Metamora’s a great community that supports their team well, and it’ll be a great atmosphere.”

The biggest question heading into the season was whether the new offense would be a good fit for Elijah Owens. The All-State quarterback has reached a whole new level this year.

“With the change in the offense, it was always a gamble,” Grounds said. “Will it work for him? How will it fit his skill set? And I think it’s been a perfect match. He’s thrown double-digit touchdowns, he’s run for, I think, 19 touchdowns, had a touchdown reception last week, so I mean, he’s really just been the complete maestro out there, distributing the ball. And when it’s time for him to make the play, it’s the right time, he recognizes it, and has done a tremendous job for us.”

The offensive line?

“I knew that we would eventually get it,” the coach said. “How soon would it happen? And then it was an adjustment for us as coaches, too. We’ve been a wide-open throwing team for the better

Jacksonville’s Emmanuel Moore heads upfield during a football game earlier this season.

(Dennis Mathes/Journal-Courier)

part of the last 12 to 15 years, and going back to a run-first,

a senior quarterback who’s committed to Division I. ... We assured him he was going to get some really good throwing looks out of this, and he has. And I’ll tell you what – it was a leap of faith that he took in us, and it’s paid off for all of us.”

And

“They’ve got the stops that we need, and they’ve created some critical turnovers,” Grounds said. “A lot of them are still learning. They’re young kids. Just like some of our guys are on offense. Next year, we’ll return nine out of 11 starters on defense, and we’re going to have around eight of 11 starters back on offense. The kids we lose are quality kids who have been the heart and soul of our program for a long time, but these young kids are getting a lot of experience, and growing up in front of our eyes.”

Grounds credited his assistant coaches, but without solid leadership from some key seniors, it wouldn’t have worked.

“We’ve had a group of seniors who have been the glue to pull everything together, and it doesn’t happen without leadership in the locker room, which they’ve had,” Grounds said. “They’ve followed it up with good play on the field.”

What about Metamora? Grounds said offensively, the Redbirds look a lot like Normal U-High. “The quarterback is a good

runner,” he said. “They run a lot of power schemes and play-action. Defensively, they’re a real aggressive defensive front that gets after people. You look at their scores in their conference compared to ours, it’s easy to see why we’re an eight and nine, because our records are identical, and they lost to the bigger teams in their league and took care of business against the people their size. So I think it’s going to be definitely a battle. Explosive plays, and turnovers, I think, are going to determine the outcome.”

Grounds said he’s most concerned about Metamora’s power running game. The Crimsons have had some injuries on defense, and they’ve had to shuffle some people around. “We’ve gotten better,” he said. “Second half against U-High, we made some adjustments, and kids really stepped up. We limited what they were having success with in the first half. They’re straightahead. You can’t blink when they run the ball because they’re right downhill at you. So you’ve got to meet their physicality on the line with your physicality. And the secondary have to get involved as tacklers against their schemes. So that leaves you vulnerable to some of the play-action schemes. It’s not unlike what we’ve seen in our league. I think our league has us prepared for stuff.”

The Crimsons have scored at least 14 points against every team they’ve played this year, culminating in a

school-record 70 points last week against U-High in a game they needed to win.

“I think the one thing we’ve been successful with against anybody on our schedule has been, with our speed, to be able to create some explosive plays,” Grounds said. “I think that our fast guys are as good and athletic as anybody we’re

going to face. When you look at No. 2, our quarterback, distributing the ball to the speed that we have, I think we’ve got to do what we’ve done all year. We’ve spread the ball around, we’ve kept people off-balance with the inside-outside attack. If you’re going to spend too much time on the run,

we’ve been able to go over the top with the pass for touchdowns.”

Grounds said the Crimsons are playing their best football right now. The players have been all business this week.

“They understood what we were trying to convey in our scouting reports and our

game plans and just went after it,” he said. “They’ve been the same every week of the season. They show up, they work hard, they play hard for each other. They’re coachable. It’s been a really, really fun season to be a part of.”

Jacksonville’s Antawan McGowan brings down a Springfield Southeast ball carrier during a football game earlier this season.

(Dennis Mathes/Journal-Courier)

(Dennis Mathes/Journal-Courier)

Mid-season surge sends Beardstown back to playoffs

By Dennis Mathes Journal Courier

There’s the easy way, and then there’s the Beardstown way.

The Tigers, forced to win their last two games of the regular season to make the playoffs last year, were in a similar position this year. And they made it across that goal line again, beating Calhoun and Pleasant

Teamwork at its Best!

Hill to finish with five wins.

Earlier, Beardstown stunned Mendon Unity 22-20 to start its lateseason run, then put up more points against WIVC-North champion Camp Point Central than anybody else this season in a 36-28 loss.

Beardstown has made the playoffs in both of Elliott Craig’s first two seasons with the team.

“That was kind of the goal again,” the coach said. “That’s the first goal we’ve always set since I’ve been here. Kind of a similar path from last year to this year, to some degree.”

Beardstown finished with 47 playoff points -- one of the highest totals for any 5-4 team in the state. Six of the nine teams Beardstown played this year made

the playoffs.

Last year the Tigers were playing their best football at the end of the season. This year, too. “Definitely feel like we’re playing better now than we were, say, the first few games of the year,” Craig said. Two major changes altered the Tigers’ fortunes this year. Lineman Owen O’Hara, who missed the first

Goo d luck Tigers!

three weeks of the season with an injury, got to the point where he could play both offense and defense after Beardstown’s 6-0 loss to Brown County. And Micah Wink, the type of athlete who can play anywhere, volunteered to play where he was needed most -- the offensive line. “He actually came to me and said he would be willing

to do it,” Craig said.

“Most kids don’t want to be linemen, but he came to me and said, for the good of the team, coach, I’ll move to offensive line. So that’s a credit in itself to Micah Wink for wanting to do that.”

After week one, Beardstown changed some things they were doing offensively, out of necessity. With the line solidified, they changed

LUCK LUCKTEAMS!

Beardstown’s Christy Domitien tries to pull away from a Routt tackler during a football game earlier this season in Jacksonville.

some things back against Calhoun, and it worked.

“I think solidifying the offensive line has helped Christy (Domitien) get going. The kid’s very talented,” Craig said. “He runs extremely hard. He never asks to come out. He’s got a lot of those types of intangibles.”

Christy Domitien, Lucas Domitien and quarterback Owen Quigley have all busted some big runs this season. Craig said sophomore tight end Ethan Heller has been a big part of that, as have wideouts Ryan McClenning and Elizah Thomas, who have been doing a much better job blocking on the edges.

“You can get a 15- or 20-yard gain, but usually when a guy busts a 50or 60-yard run, that’s because your wideouts are even doing a good job of blocking,” Craig said.

The Tigers’ passing game has been solid. “We’ve been able to get big completions and first-down completions at key times to keep drives alive,” Craig said. “And that’s been important as well.”

Friday night’s firstround opponent, Eureka, isn’t imposingly big up front, but the Hornets have speed and quickness, and they’re strong. Eureka has made six straight playoffs under coach Jason Bachman. The team has a

brand new turf field.

The team presents a smorgasbord for football fans who love X’s and O’s, with multiple formations as well as a “sniffer back” – a hybrid fullback/tight end who lines up behind one of the guards and helps block.

“They’ve got a quarterback who’s a nice runner, and they run some speed-option stuff,” Craig said. “They’ve got a good tailback. A lot of spread, a lot of quick passing game at times. A lot of counter, a lot of speed-option – those type of run plays. And then a lot of different types of screens and stuff out of their spreads. We’ve seen a little bit of that – not necessarily everything. We don’t see that stuff every week. But between Routt and Mendon, and especially Mendon being later in the year, we have seen some of that stuff, so it’s not completely foreign to us.

“They’re well-coached,” Craig said. “Jason Bachman is a good friend of mine. … We were on the same coaching staff at the Illinois Shrine Game over the summer, so we got to know each other over that time period. He’s done a good job since taking over that program.”

Kickoff Friday is at 7:30 p.m.

Beardstown quarterback Owen Quigley heads upfield during a football game against Routt in Jacksonville earlier this season. (Dennis Mathes/Journal-Courier)

Warriors back in the playoffs

By Travis Zuellig For the Journal Courier

After missing the postseason the past four years, the Calhoun football team returns to the IHSA playoffs and will face a familiar opponent.

Just like the Warriors’ last playoff game in 2017, a loss to Camp Point Central, Calhoun will play another perennial playoff contender from the WIVC.

The Warriors (5-4) will make the short 35-mile journey to play WIVC-South rival Green-

field-Northwestern (8-1) Saturday. The major difference between that last playoff appearance and this one is that Calhoun played the Tigers during the regular season. That game ended in a 14-7 defeat in Greenfield on September 16.

“It was one of those backand-forth games,” Calhoun head coach Aaron Elmore said. “We played very well, offensively and defensively. We just had a hard time punching it in to score some points. We feel like if we play our best game, we should have a good chance

to win this one.”

In the game back in Week 4, Calhoun trailed out of the gate after conceding a touchdown on the opening kickoff. Sophomore fullback Conner Longnecker gave the Warriors a 7-6 halftime lead with a three-yard rushing touchdown with under a minute remaining in the first half. A Greenfield-NW touchdown with 1:39 left in the game gave the Tigers the win at home in a very physical contest.

Longnecker, who leads the Warriors in rushing

yards this season, had a big game against Greenfield-NW, gaining 85 yards on 16 carries, plus that first-half touchdown.

“That was his first really big game,” Elmore said. “That was his breakout for the season and ever since then, he has really turned it on. He is a big, fast and strong kid being basically the focal point of our offense at the fullback. He gets a lot of carries, and he is improving each and every week.”

Calhoun bounced back from the defeat by beating

Carrollton, Pleasant Hill and North Greene in consecutive weeks to become playoff-eligible.

There are some advantages and disadvantages to playing a conference opponent in the playoffs.

The Warriors have already made the trip and understand the lay of the land and the field. The disadvantage is that Greenfield-Northwestern knows as much about Calhoun as Calhoun knows about the Tigers.

Elmore said his players are excited to make it back

to playoffs.

“They have worked very hard to get to this point and I don’t think they are ready for the season to be over, so I think they are going to give it everything they’ve got this week to try and continue to play as long as we can,” Elmore said. “I think we have improved vastly since last season and we reached our first goal, which was to get to the playoffs. And now that we are here, we are going to do everything we can to continue this season.”

Calhoun’s Chris Stanley follows offensive lineman Hunter Medling during a Week 2 game against Mendon Unity.

(Greg Shashack/For the Journal-Courier)

Battle-tested Hornets set for playoffs

By Travis Zuellig

For the Journal Courier

Coming into the IHSA Class 1A playoffs, no WIVC team will be more battle-tested than the Brown County football team. Six of the Hornets’ nine opponents made the playoffs, including each division winner in the WIVC North and South.

Wins over Calhoun and Beardstown sparked Brown County (5-4) to a playoff berth and a chance to duplicate what the team did last season — go on the road for an opening-round playoff game and come back with a win. Last year, the Hornets traveled to Toledo and upset Cumberland 24-14. Brown County will travel a similar distance to Tuscola (72) Saturday and hope to repeat the upset.

“We played in a really tough conference. We are lucky to get in with the competition we play,” head coach Tom Little said. “We had a really tough schedule and we feel like we have been tested throughout that

schedule with different types of offenses and defensive schemes, so hopefully, playing the competition we do will help us in the playoffs.”

The journey started with a victory over playoff-bound Calhoun at home in the opening game of the season. Brown County went on to beat North Greene and Triopia to improve to 3-0. The team’s first loss came to WIVCNorth champion Camp Point Central before a 6-0 Week 5 win over Beardstown, another playoff team. After three straight losses, the Hornets beat Carrollton in Week 9 to become playoff eligible.

“It has been a tough road to get here, but overall, we are happy with what the kids have done and hopefully we will have more games to play,” Little said.

Last season was a different journey. After a series of injuries, Brown County went from a 4-0 start to a 5-4 regular-season finish. Brown County made the 170-mile trek to Cumberland for the opening-round game and thumped

the Lincoln Prairie Conference runnerup. Little said he sees similarities in this year and the way that season unfolded.

“We know we play tough competition, being in the WIVC, and I think that tough competition allowed us to make sure we were ready and prepared to go on the road and take on a nice Toledo team and get that victory,” the coach said.

Tuscola had a strong season in the Central Illinois Conference, finishing third to Decatur St. Teresa and Shelbyville. Tuscola lost to both those teams. Brown County will make the drive Saturday morning, as they have in previous seasons.

This will be the 16th playoff appearance for the Hornets under Little, who said his players are excited about the game.

“They know how hard it is to get into the playoffs and there are a lot of teams right now that are sitting at home and not preparing,” Little said. “They feel blessed to compete for another week.”

GOOD LUCK BROWN COUNTY!!

Brown County’s Colby Wort tackles a Carrollton ball carrier during a football game last Thursday at Carrollton.

(Dennis Mathes/Journal-Courier)