Eastland-Pearl City

from SVM 2022 Prep Football Preview 082522

Milledgeville

Nowhere but up for determined Wildcatz

By CODY CUTTER

ccutter@shawmedia.com

PEARL CITY – With several new players in new positions this season, one might think that the first week of practice for the Eastland-Pearl City Wildcatz may have been one of growing pains, especially after a disappointing 1-8 campaign in 2021.

That’s not the case, according to coach Jared McNutt.

The Wildcatz have high hopes of returning to the upper echelon of the rough-and-tough Northwest Upstate Illini Conference this season. Two big improvements over the offseason, and after the first week of practice, have been team unity and defense.

“We are further ahead now than we were last year at this point, which is a good sign,” McNutt said. “We got a lot of guys stepping into different roles that they weren’t normally at last year, and we have some transfers from running back and wide receiver to offensive and defensive line, and they’re picking it up real quick.”

Senior Carsen Heeren is the only returning allconference player. He split his time between several positions, chiefly at wide receiver, but will be entrenched under center as the Wildcatz’s starting quarterback, and play linebacker on the other side of the ball. Last year, Heeren led the receiving corps with nine catches for 95 yards and two touchdowns. Now, he and his fellow seniors are helping their teammates get accustomed to other positions.

“We’re getting better almost every day,” Heeren said. “Almost every guy knows what they’re doing all of time, and they’re always asking questions about things and knowing where they’re supposed to go.”

Gone from last year’s squad are all-NUIC honorable mention quarterback and punter Kellen Henze, who rushed for 520 yards on 100 keepers with five touchdowns on the ground, and threw for 619 yards on 66-for100 passing with three more scores in the air; as well as fellow honorable mention choice Riley Schauer and his 120 rushing yards on 27 attempts from a year ago.

Returning, however, is the team’s leading touchdown scorer, senior Maddux Hayden, who scored seven TDs on the ground to lead the team, rushed for 401 yards on 77 carries, and also caught eight passes for 81 yards. He will also lead the linebacking corps in the middle; on defense, he led the Wildcatz with 34 tackles.

“We weren’t overly satisfied with last season, and that’s just based off of our record,” Hayden said. “Other than that, we saw many positive things. Moving forward off of that, we are improving even more with the core values of our team, and our relationships as team members are getting stronger and stronger than we’ve seen since I’ve been here. We have that team aspect this year, and with that, the overall mindset and results from this year will be better than we’ve seen in a while.”

Among the big men in the trenches, seniors Cade Monks Levi Burkholder will lead anchor the line of scrimmage. On defense, four of the Wildcatz’s top five tacklers come back: along with Hayden, senior Tanner Perdue had 33 tackles last season, followed by classmates Donovan Kuhlemier (32) and Burkholder (28).

“Our energy is high and our guys are flying around,” Monks said. “On defense, everybody is loving it. There’s going to be a lot of smash-mouth football. We’re going to be hitting teams hard in the face.”

Among the junior class, Brady Sweitzer is another two-way player who saw varsity time last season and will continue in a utility role at wherever he’s needed, be it wide receiver, running back, a backup for Heeren under center, and at linebacker.

SVM file photo Eastland-Pearl City’s Kellen Henze (left) hands off to Maddux Hayden in the first quarter of their Week 1 game against Lena-Winslow in Lanark last season. Hayden returns as the Wildcatz’s leading rusher.

GoodLuck

thisSeason to ALL

areateams!

Roster

No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. Pos.

1 Peyton Spears 5-8 145 So. WR/DB 2 Carsen Heeren 6-2 165 Sr. QB/LB 3 Tanner Stern 5-10 150 So. WR/DB 4 Brady Sweitzer 6-0 160 Jr. RB/DB 6 Weston Gronewold 5-11 170 Jr. WR/LB 7 Brady Boyer 5-11 170 So. QB/DB 8 Jackson Corbin 6-1 160 So. QB/DB 10 Ethan Petta 5-9 150 Jr. WR/DB 11 Jaidyn McKinney 5-10 145 So. WR/DB 14 Max McCullough 6-0 165 Sr. QB/DB 20 Logan Freier 5-9 150 Jr. WR/LB 21 Jaxson Kempel 5-9 165 So. RB/LB 22 Draven Zier 5-8 150 Fr. RB/LB 27 Donovan Kuhlemier 6-1 185 Sr. WR/LB 28 Hunter Miller 5-9 170 So. WR/LB 30 Zyacn Haverland 6-2 185 Fr. TE/DB 32 Ayden Bratley 5-6 145 So. RB/DB 34 Jayce Reed 5-9 150 Fr. RB/DB 43 Maddux Hayden 5-11 205 Sr. RB/LB 45 Will Birchen 5-10 180 Fr. RB/LB 48 Jacob Runkle 5-10 160 So. RB/LB 51 Levi Burkholder 6-1 170 Sr. OL/LB 55 Tanner Perdue 6-0 200 Sr. OL/DL 57 Robert Rodriguez 6-1 225 So. OL/DL 61 Levi Sheffey 6-6 240 Sr. OL/DL 65 Jon Dinderman 5-9 175 Sr. RB/LB 69 Carter Piquette 5-6 250 Jr. OL/DL 72 Myles Freedlund 5-11 185 So. OL/DL 73 Jon Spoerlein 5-9 170 So. OL/LB 74 Jared Runkle 5-11 185 So. OL/LB 75 Brody Voegeli 6-4 270 Fr. OL/DL 77 Cade Monks 6-0 240 Sr. OL/DL 84 Jayden Downs 6-3 205 Jr. TE/LB 85 Gage Kness 5-8 180 So. TE/DL

Schedule

Game time Opponent

Fri., Aug. 26, 7 at Lena-Winslow Fri., Sept. 2, 7 Stockton (Pearl City) Fri., Sept. 9, 7 at Forreston Fri., Sept. 16, 7 at Durand-Pecatonica Fri., Sept. 23, 7 Dakota (Lanark) Fri., Sept. 30, 7 at Galena Fri, Oct. 7, 7 West Carroll (Lanark) Sat., Oct. 15, 1 at Fulton Sat., Oct. 22, 1 vs. Chester, at Tremont

Good Luck EPC Wildcatz!

“I would say our fullback Quinton Leffelman’s going to step up big this year,” Blaine agreed. “He’s going to be starting both ways this year for us, so I think he’ll be good.”

“Quinton Leffelman this year, that’s gonna be a big player,” McKinley added. “We lost Joe Quest last year, our starting fullback, so it’s good for Quinton to come back and take over his spot. He’s gonna be good there.”

Trey Payne is expecting big things from RB/LB Landon Whelchel.

“I think Landon Whelchel will also have a big part on our defense this year after taking Jordan Gulley’s spot, and help create a lot of big plays for us on the defensive side,” he said.

Youth in the secondary is one potential concern for the Amboy co-op this year, especially during the early part of the season when it faces teams like Polo, Milledgeville and Milford-Cissna Park.

“One position is defensive back. We’re gonna have a sophomore there and then a sophomore backing him up. In an eight-man game, you’re one-on-one, and so that could be an early-on struggle for us,” coach Payne said. “But the sophomore we have starting there, he’s looked pretty good right now, without pads. But defensive back is one of our ... not a big concern, but it is a concern on defense.”

Offensively, the Clippers expect to win a lot of battles up front and consistently create movement at the point of attack.

“We have a really solid front line,” Lindenmeyer said. “They’re pretty big and strong, so they’re gonna open up a lot holes for us this year.”

“We’ve got Tucker back, and we’ve got three really good running backs in my mind. And we’ve got a really good offensive line,” coach Payne said. “Our offensive line’s big and quick and physical. So there’s two position groups I’m really excited about, to see what they can do in game-type situations.”

To take the next step this year, Amboy will need to become more effective in the passing game.

“Obviously, the biggest key to success for us is we’ve gotta be able to run the football. That’s what we like to do. On the other hand, though, we’ve gotta get better at passing the ball than we were last year,” coach Payne said. “We were pretty good last year, but we gotta get a lot better this year because we’re Amboy; teams know what we’re gonna do. But we put in a few more spread formations and some different pass plays, so we gotta be a lot better at throwing the football this year.”