Week 3 Preview: Eldorado 2-0 at Sesser-Valier-Waltonville-Woodlawn 2-0

by Steve Dunford

Game of the Week

In an early season showdown against two of the top teams in the conference, Eldorado (2-0) faces SVWW (2-0) at Carroll Kelly Field Friday night.

The Eagles went down to Vienna-Goreville and picked up a 34-15 win last Saturday.  The opened the season by defeating Chester at home 42-22.

The Eagles are led by RB, Jacob Traxler, who verbally committed to be in the backfield the next four years for Nick Hill and the SIU Salukis.

Here is a link to the WSIL-TV story on Traxler’s signing.

http://www.wsiltv.com/story/36297605/traxler-headed-to-siu

Eldorado first year head coach, and long time assistant Joe Clark had to say this about the Red Devils going into Friday Night’s contest, “S-V-W-W is a  good football team with a well designed plan and well coached. They have some solid skill kids and lineman. Should be a good early season test for both teams.”

The home team Friday night went to Carmi-White County and pulled the upset in week one.  They went on the road and beat Edwards County in Week 2, which they were favored to win.  Devils coach John Shadowens had this to say about the home opener. “Obviously, the defending Black Diamond Conference champs present some challenges we have not seen. First and foremost, having SIU recruit in Jacob Traxler. They are confident, play hard, and are an extremely formidable opponent. “

You can catch the game live or streaming on WEBQ 102.3 FM or click on the following link: http://www.webqradio.com/  or on tape delay with Richard Blakley on WXAN 103.9 FM.

 

 

 

Week 3 Preview: West Frankfort 1-1 at Sparta 0-2

by Steve Dunford

The two SIRR Ohio schools in the county flip Mississippi opponents this week as West Frankfort (1-1) travels to Sparta (0-2) and Pinckneyville (0-2) travels to Benton (1-1).

The Redbirds, led by 213 yards on the ground by RB Madison Allen , and QB Connor Eaton with 154 yards rushing as the Redbirds defeated the Pinckneyville Panthers 36-14.

Here is Coach Brian Berry’s thoughts on the Pinckneyville game. “ I felt the defense played much better (our first team defense was not scored on) this game. I believe there is still room to get better, but we did take a step in the right direction.

Offensively, we played a better game having fewer fumbles, however we still have work to do in this area as we continue our ball security drills this week. All the running backs had a good game, but because Allen had no fumbles for the game, he got more carries during the second half than the other running backs.”  (The box score for the Pinckneyville game will be at the end of the story.)

Sparta is coming off of a 29-13 loss to the Benton Rangers last Friday night.  One thing that is noted is the Sparta defense, held the Benton offense scoreless in the second half.  Here is coach Beery’s thoughts about going into Friday night’s game with Sparta,  “Sparta is a very athletic team. They have the ability to take it to the house on any given play due to their athleticism. We must contain their speed, while continuing to improve on our pass coverage (there was a few time Pinckneyville caught us misaligned last week). Offensively, we MUST take care of the ball, continue to improve our run game, and do a better job finding a balance in our passing game. 

I also spoke with Sparta coach Rob Kirk. First he has a few things to say about his team’s Week Two loss to Benton,   It had been a 14 game streak that was broken holding Benton scoreless in the second half. “Benton is a playoff caliber team, with a potential All State QB in Hamilton Page, so we were glad to see our pass defense finally pick up after so many years of developing better DB’s. We matched up well with Benton, and it was fun being apart of a competitive game again. A couple years ago we were the top defense for the first six weeks and with some key injuries and seniors who graduated we had to pull up young players who didn’t have the time to develop at the JV level and were brought straight up to varsity.”

About his team’s upcoming matchup with West Frankfort Friday night, he said,  “We are close to becoming a winning program again and we will have a big test vs. WF. We expect them as always to be big and physical and Coach Beery is always good at having some tricks up his sleeves.”

“Offensively we are controlling the ball better and earning first downs which only helps our defense. We have had some key injuries on our offensive line but they should be back by Pinckneyville or Nashville. We have had some success running the ball (Jonathan Williams, Ethan Evans, Seth Berry, Clayton Sheldon) and throwing the ball (Ostyn Connors, Kerry Harris, Nate Meierotto, Carlos Keen).”

“Our QB is a returning starter and a junior this year and is really doing a great job running the offense, while going both ways at Linebacker. We finally are playing as a team, we feel as though every week we have the most talent on the field and when they play as a team we will be hard to beat. After an 0-9 season, Sparta football is starting to build some loyalty in its program again, were looking forward to picking up a win and ending the 14 Game losing streak.”

If you can’t make the long trip to Randolph County, join Rick Westemeyer and Michael Marlo on WFRX 96.5 FM/1300

West Frankfort 36 Pinckneyville 14 Box Score

West Frankfort `12`0`6`18`–`36
Pinkcneyville `0`7`7`0`–`14

Scoring
1st:
WF Sam Cooksey 1 run (PAT no good), 8:34
WF Connor Eaton 15 run (2 pt no good – Allen run) 0:46
2nd
Pville fumble recovery for a TD 85 yards Tyler Rice (Ben Restoff – PAT good), 8:13
3rd
WF Sam Cooksey 3 yard run (2 pt conversion no good run Kyle Hammers), 8:35
4th
WF Madison Allen 31 yard run (2 pt. conversion failed Sam Cooksey), 11:52
WF Madison Allen 9 yard run (PAT no good), 7:42
Pville Colton Kling pass to Ryan Brueggemann for 36 yard reception (Ben Restoff PAT good), 6:12
WF Madison Allen 2 yard run (PAT no good) 3:44

Team Statistics

FIRST DOWNS: WF 18, Pville 10. TOTAL YARDS: WF 477, Pville 287. RUSHES-YARDS: WF 53-446, Pville 32-96. PASSING YARDS: WF 31, Pville 191. COMP-ATT-INT: WF 3-6-0, Pville 9-20-191. PENALITIES-YARDS: WF 10-60, Pville2-20. FUMBLES LOST: WF 4/2 Pville 1/1.

Individual Statistics

RUSHING-WF Sam Cooksey 10-67, Madison Allen 26-215, Connor Eaton 15-154, Kyle Hammers 2-10. Pville Tyler Rice 5-13, Colton King 15-9, Jordan Thompson 1-4, Ryan Brueggemann 4-17, Chase Witbracht 1-6, Chase Fulkerson 5-45
PASSING-WF Eaton 3-6-0-31. Pville Colton Kling 9-20-1-191.
RECEIVING-WF Kyle Hammers 1-7, Sam Cooksey 2-24. Pville Zack Obertini 1-9, Tyler Rice 2-23, Ryan Brueggemann 4-120, Chase Witbracht 1-9, Hunter Riggins 1-30.

 

 

 

 

Cardinals acquire RHP Juan Nicasio in trade with Phillies

Redbirds add righty reliever Juan Nicasio for stretch run

SAN DEIGO, CA – The St. Louis Cardinals announced today that they have acquired right-handed reliever Juan Nicasio (pronounced nih-KAH-see-oh) from the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for minor league infielder Eliezer Alvarez.

 

Pittsburg Post-Gazette Photo

Nicasio, 31, had joined the Phillies just last week (August 31) on a waiver claim from the Pittsburgh Pirates. The 6-4, 250-pound Dominican native has combined to go 3-5 with a 2.79 ERA in a National League-leading 67 games between Pittsburgh (65 games) and Philadelphia (2 games) in 2017. Nicasio, has fanned 61 batters in his 61.1 innings of work this season, walked only 18, and he’s allowed just four home runs while holding the opposition to .218 batting mark, including a .200 average vs. left-handed batters. His 21 Holds rank T5th in the National League this season and his 1.09 WHIP is ranked 15th among all N.L. relievers.

Nicasio, who debuted with the Colorado Rockies in 2011, has appeared in 260 career games (82 starts) with the Rockies (2011-14), Los Angeles Dodgers (2015), Pittsburgh (2016-17) and Philadelphia (2017), putting together a career mark of 35-37 with a 4.60 ERA in 618.2 innings pitched.

A free-agent at season’s end, Nicasio will make every effort to join the Cardinals in San Diego for the conclusion of their road trip that includes games both tonight and tomorrow night. He would not be eligible for postseason play should the Cardinals qualify.

Alvarez, 22, was signed by the Cardinals as a non-drafted international free-agent on July 2, 2011 out of Santiago, Dominican Republic.

The 5-11, 190-pound middle infielder batted a combined .248 with 5 HR’s and 28 RBI in 61 games between Springfield (AA) and the Gulf Coast League Cardinals (R) in 2017.
Nicasio has been assigned uniform no. 12.

Carmi just too strong for young CZR Bearcats

http://www.bentoneveningnews.com/sports/20170905/carmi-just-too-strong-for-young-czr-bearcats

C_Z-R QB Bryce Pratt gets the play call from the sidelines. (Randall Risley, Photo

CARMI, IL  (Randall Risley, Benton News.  Please click on the link for the full story.  Here is an excerpt below.)

Kaizen is the Japanese word for “constant improvement.” That Christopher-Zeigler-Royalton football lost 40-0 to Carmi-White County doesn’t take away from the measurable, encouraging progress the very young Bearcats are demonstrating.

Kaizen is as much a philosophy as a word and CZR seems to be embracing that philosophy from the top down.

“One of the main goals was to get rid of that deer-in-the-headlights look. We wanted to come out and play at 100 percent,” said Bearcats first-year headc coach Anthony Hargrove. “We felt that we didn’t play at 100 percent last week because we were nervous, so this week we just wanted to play hard and see where the chips lay.”

Hargrove spoke about positivity and emotion saying, “That’s half the battle, you’ve got to get them to believe.”

Sesser-Valier-Waltonville-Woodlawn Red Devils move to 2-0 with win over Edwards County

http://www.bentoneveningnews.com/sports/20170905/sesser-valier-waltonville-woodlawn-red-devils-move-to-2-0-with-win-over-edwards-county

ALBION, IL –  (Richard Blakley, Benton News.  Please click on the link for the full story.  Here is an excerpt below.)

The Sesser-Valier/Waltonville/Woodlawn Red Devils were on the road for the second week in a row to start the 2017 season, going to Edwards County to take on the Lions/

Eli Gunter led the Red Devil offense rushing for 136 yards and one touchdown.  Rock added 78 yards. As a team, SVWW rushed for 338 yards on 45 carriers.

Smith was 4-9 passing for 61 yards and one touchdown. Reid Basso 1-1 for 23 yards. Lukas Gunter hauled in four catches for 61 yards and one touchdown. Smith had on catch for 23 yards.

Eldorado (2-0) will be at Carrol Kelly Field Friday night as the Red Devils play their home opener.

Around the BDC: Eldorado rolls to win, 34-15, at Vienna-Goreville

http://www.dailyregister.com/sports/20170902/eldorado-rolls-to-win-34-15-at-vienna-goreville

VIENNA, IL –  (Michael Dann, Harrisburg Register.  Please click on the link above for the full story.  Here is an excerpt below.)

Playing at Vienna-Goreville comes with a unique set of circumstances that any Black Diamond Conference School is well aware of.

Before the game, Eldorado’s leading rusher Jacob Traxler’s helmet was accidentally ran over by the team bus, but the senior back got help from a teammate with a new lid and ran for 131 yards on 10 carries and had three touchdowns in the win.

Eldorado, who finished with 319 yards on the ground, served notice early, taking a 20-0 lead before Vienna-Goreville got on the scoreboard and for first year head coach Joe Clark says his team is still developing.

“Overall, we are doing a good job running the football and when we want to are able to take advantage in the passing game. We continue to grind, but we made some mistakes, myself included and starting with me that we were able to recover from. We had a lot of kids step up Vienna-Goreville head coach Mike Rude said Saturday’s contest with a measuring stick game for his club, one where he considers Eldorado to be the No. 1 or No. 2 team in the conference.

“I would say a lot of people are going to pick Traxler to Player Of The Year in the conference. He’s a D1 football player and he’s a load. I didn’t really feel like the score should have been what it was at halftime. We learned a lot of things today, we said this was our measuring stick and we know where we’re at now.”nd that was nice to see.”

 

 

NICK HILL PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

From John Lock – Associate Sports Information Director, Southern Illinois University

OPENING STATEMENT

I’m excited that it is finally game week and we are finally here. It seems like it’s been a while, especially not being able to play the first week. We had to sit back and watch everyone play, really for two weekends. Our guys are ready to play. Really all of college football has had a five-week training camp. I feel like we’re in a good spot and we’re healthy. We’ve been able to give them some days off. I think last night was the most balanced I’ve seen them in a week or two. They have another day off today and we’ll hit our stride tomorrow for game week. We’re excited that it’s here. I’m really just excited to watch our team play. You go through spring football and summer and you recruit all of these guys, as a head coach it’s fun for game day to watch them go out there and play. I’m excited for Saturday for that.

An update on injuries, there’s no update on Roman Tatum from the beginning of the year. He’s battling and we’ll see where he’s at, but there is a realistic possibility that he’s out for the season. Landon Lenoir had surgery about four days ago. Right now it’s probably about 6-8 weeks with him and we’ll see where he’s at with how he progresses. I feel bad for Landon because he’s one of our top targets. He’s a young kid with a bright future, and he still is. He’ll keep battling for it when he comes back. Ernest Dye got injured a little over a week ago. He will probably be out for 2-3 weeks. We’re hoping to get him back pretty soon. Josh Podzielinski, another offensive lineman, went down with a hamstring about 10 days ago and will be probable for this game. He will be back in practice tomorrow and we will see where he’s at. He will be dressed for this game. We have some young kids that will get a chance to play and get some more reps.

With that said, I have a ton of respect for Mississippi Valley’s head coach. When you look as a young head coach and see a guy with 156 wins and I have four, he obviously knows what he’s doing. He’s won a ton of football games. They will keep getting better throughout the season. We all know what it’s like to go up to Fargo and play in that environment. It can get away from you pretty quickly. He’s not the only person that has went up there and struggled with a good football team.

We have to concentrate on us. We haven’t played a game yet and they have. They get to make some corrections and you see a lot of improvement from game one to game two. That’s what we’re expecting. They’ll come in here and play better than they did in week one. We have to control what we can control. We’re worried about what we do and how we play. They will have some talented football players and we’re expected to go out and play a good football game.

Who will start in Lenoir’s spot on Saturday?

We have guys go and start the game at wide receiver, but we don’t have starters really. We have six or seven guys that can play. At the beginning of the year, we thought it’s going to be tough to make the bus with this group. Landon is one of the we thought we’d be counting on. Darrell James has played a ton of football. Jimmy Jones is back. We have guys that will step in and play. We have some young guys who will progress. We’ll see if we’re going to put them out there at the beginning of the year or not. We have some depth at wide receiver. That’s one position that we felt like we could probably take an injury at because we have some talented depth.

Lenoir is a good blocker too. Do you feel like you lose something there?

That’s a collective with that group. We pride ourselves on being a blocking team. He’s come a long way, but he watched the group in front of him last year. It took him six or seven games to get on the field because that wasn’t his strong point. Connor (Iwema), Jimmy and Darrell are probably our top-three blockers. We’ll be good at that. We do that every single day here. You don’t get on the field unless you make that a point of emphasis and are able to block.

Who will start on the offensive line?

Right now, with those two injuries, Jacob Marnin will move over to guard and Jack White will start at center. Matt Chmielewski and Aaron Harris will play guard. You’ll probably see seven or eight guys play on the offensive line during week one and that’s a good thing. We have to build some depth. As soon as we get those guys back and we see where Podzielinski is at we can see about who is out there and the combinations we use, but we’re playing around with that still.

How have Withney Simon and Airan Reed looked in practice?

He’s a guy that hasn’t redshirted. He played as a true freshman. He always finds the ball. He’s played on special teams. Last year, he started the season as the number one. Then Airan Reedmoved into that position and Withney just kind of bounced around. All of this will come down to what kind of depth we have.

As for Airan Reed, he’s a top-level talent. He’s as athletic as anyone you’ll find when you’re recruiting a player. He came here as a safety and we moved him to outside linebacker. That’s how we play that position. You have to be able to play some man-to-man. You’re going to get caught in coverages playing cover one. He can rush the passer and we’ll use him in those situations as well. He has the ability to find the quarterback and get him down. He’s come a long way from where he was at. A lot of these guys were babies in this defense last year just trying to find their way and figure things out. Airan was one of those guys. His snap counts went way up at the end of last season and he was playing at a high level. Now, he’s had an offseason and you’d like to see him stay on the pace to get better. That’s what he’s done all summer. It’s just like the rest of our team. Now he has to go out there and do it.

The defense looks a lot better than they did this time last year. Is that because they have a year under their belt?

I think so. That’s with anything you do. I talked about that through training camp. The more you do anything the better you’re going to get at it. Experience is huge. The only way to get experience is to go out there, get thrown in the fire and learn from your mistakes. College football moves fast. Those guys have a lot of reps now. When you hear the same terminology over and over and over again and see different situations. By year two, the game slows down for you. Hopefully it does that for a lot of the defense. It’s not like you master it in year two either. We know that. The game is full of situations on how you adapt to things, whether it’s in practice or a game. That’s the thing I like with this team. Is the ability to adjust a stay together and figure it out together.

What excites you the most about the defense?

We’re athletic. We’re young and will be youngest defensive line in the country. There will be times when there are four freshmen out there together, redshirt freshmen and true freshmen. The other ones like Blake Parzych and Malik Haynes are second-year players, but they’re same age as those redshirt freshmen. Still they didn’t play a ton last year, but they’re a bit ahead. We’re mainly made up of first a second year players on the defensive line. There are some players that will be names that Saluki fans know for a long time around here. I’m excited to see them make some plays and have some fun on Saturday.

At linebacker, Cody Crider made some plays around here as a redshirt freshman. I think he was in the 60s in tackles. He’s as athletic of a linebacker as you’ll find. Kyron Watson is a leader on our team. He really brings the energy and our team feeds off of Kyron. Chase Allen just made the 53-man roster (for the Miami Dolphins). Kyron and Chase split reps last year at that positon. We have Kyron back, and Markese Jackson is a guy who is back that played starter reps. He can play multiple positions. We feel like we have five or six guys that can play at the linebacker position.

Is Jonathon Mixon still dealing with injuries?

No, Mixon has looked really good at practice the last few days. He was full go last night and moved really well. He will be a full participant all week. Unless there is a setback, he will be cleared and full go for Saturday.

What role does Mixon play with the running backs?

You’ll see him get series where he is our change of pace back. You want to see tailbacks get a rhythm and stack those carries because it’s a position where you have to get a feel and get hit qet lathered up to get going. That’s what the best ones do. It’s not like he’s going to get a certain number of carries. He closed out games for us last year. That’s what we’d like from him. You see games in the fourth quarter where you need a big bell cow to carry it home and Mixon can do that.

What is Daquan Isom’s role?

It’s big for us. He’s a guy who can score from anywhere on the field. He gives you an explosive back the field. He can catch out of the back field and take it the distance. I don’t know how many career catches he has, but he catches the ball well and he can be used in the screen game. I tell people all the time that physically he’s in the best shape he’s ever been in. When he was a freshman he carried the ball at under 170 pounds. He was 166 or 167 pounds. Now he’s in the 190s. He’s put on 20 to 25 pounds of muscle. He’s our strongest running back, even with Mixon. If you get him in the weight room, he’s an explosive kid. He’s not a huge back, but now that he’s in 190-pound range, hopefully he can carry the ball into the 20 carries a game range.

What do you know about Mississippi Valley’s quarterbacks? They play a few.

Yeah, the first guy, number three, I saw play in junior college. He got the start. It’s hard to judge a quarterback when they’re playing under pressure. Number one, you’re in the dome and you can’t hear. It’s hard to replicate that in training camp. So they’re going off a silent count and you can tell that the entire game. You can tell that by how they were snapping the ball. Not many people go in there and win, look successful and move the football in recent years. It wasn’t a great game to judge those quarterbacks. Especially going up there and playing against one of the best defensive lines in college football. They had a lot of heat on them. They didn’t have a lot of time to look down field. They’re college quarterbacks for a reason and that’s the way they we will prepare for them. The second two guys that came in could run the ball well. We look for them to have a package of that and we have to be ready for anything.

Defensively, they play a 4-4 sometimes with one free safety. How do you test that with your passing game?

Yeah, really nothing changes for us offensively this game or the next. We’re going to watch the film and have an answer for whatever they do. We went back and have watched very game they played last year, plus the NDSU game. They like to bring guys down in the box to stop the run. It’s just like anything, if they put too many guys in the box you have to be able to throw and if they back out you have to be able to run the ball. We can’t make things too complicated. If it’s not a good box to run and they have more guys in there than we can block, then we better start throwing. Hopefully we can hit them with a few throws to loosen them up so we can run the football.

What have you noticed about Sam Straub’s progression?

I think the confidence about him. We meet in the office and we sit down and talk. It’s not about how many completions he gets; he just has to win. I can see that in him. I think the confidence of him knowing that he doesn’t have to make a play. Sometimes the best play is throwing it into the third row and avoiding a sack. That’s what I’ve seen him be able to do now that he knows he’s the guy. No matter is we’re sitting here preaching that same thing to two or three guys, you still have the natural tendency to press a bit. I haven’t seen that in him. He’s just taking what the defense gives him. Coach Van Dam does a great job with the quarterbacks and them understanding the offense. We trust Sam, and I told him that in the game. He’s big in the game plans and on the sidelines on Saturday in knowing what he’s seeing out there. He knows our offense. I’m happy where Sam is at and I’m excited to see him go out there and play.

Jimmy Jones can be a factor on the field. What have you seen from him?

He is still getting healthy. That’s an injury that is tough to come back from. We limit his reps every day. He hasn’t been a full participant. He gets out there because he is a competitor. He’s snuck out there a few times when he’s not supposed to. He’s a difference maker when he is out there. He can run and speed kills in this came. He can run right by and he can make you miss when he gets the ball. He can do a little bit of everything. He’s always proven that when he’s been out there and been healthy. That’s hard to do when you go out and you’re playing, but we have to be smart with him throughout the week in practice. He’s gotten in the best shape. He will be out there on Saturday and have a package of plays. I’d like to see him continue to improve and by midseason have him back to Jimmy Jones form. You see him in practice now he’s still got that gear and can still run.

 

MVFC Announces Weekly Football Honors

From Mike Kern, Associate Commissioner, Missouri Valley Football Conference  

ST LOUIS, MO – This week’s Missouri Valley Football Conference Players of the Week include QB Chris Streveler of South Dakota; LB Quentin Moon of Western Illinois; P Brady Schutt of South Dakota; and QB Peyton Huslig of Missouri State.

Offense

QB Chris Streveler, South Dakota Sr., 6-3, 215, Crystal Lake (Ill.) Marian Central Catholic High / Minnesota
Streveler accounted for six touchdowns in one half of play in leading South Dakota to a 77-7 win against Drake Saturday in Des Moines. Streveler completed 17 of 24 passes for 248 yards and five touchdowns. He was also the game’s leading rusher at halftime, carrying 11 times for 53 yards and a touchdown. The 56 points South Dakota scored in the first half were the most since 2005. The Coyote offense scored touchdowns on seven of its eight first-half possessions.

Defense
LB Quentin Moon, Western Illinois Jr., 6-2, 232, Indianapolis (Ind.) Pike

Moon set a career-high making 3.5 tackles for a loss, part of his 10 tackles at Tennessee Tech. Moon recorded an 11-yard sack, forced a fumble and returned it six yards. In the first three quarters, Moon recorded all 10 of his tackles and Tech managed just 89 total yards.

Special Teams
P Brady Schutt, South Dakota R-Fr., 6-1, 205, Orange City (Iowa) MOC/FV HS

Schutt pinned all four of his punts inside the 20 while making his collegiate debut against Drake in Des Moines Saturday. He averaged 38.5 yards while pinning the Bulldogs on their 3-, 14-, 16- and 18-yard lines. Drake threw interceptions, including a pick-six, on two of those four possessions.

Newcomer
QB Peyton Huslig, Missouri State, So., 6-3, 205, Andover (Kan.) Andover Central High / Garden City (Kan.) CC

Huslig completed 24-of-35 passes for 353 yards while accounting for three of Missouri State’s six touchdowns (2 pass/1 rush). He guided the MSU offense to touchdowns in each of its first three possessions, as the Bears converted their first five third-down tries and ran up their best-ever point total (43) against an FBS foe. He added a 10-yard rushing TD in the fourth quarter, and his 353 passing yards mark the most for a Bears quarterback since Ashton Glaser threw for 357 against Murray State on Sept. 15, 2012.

OTHERS NOMINATED
Offense
WR Christian Gibbs, Illinois State — 5 catches, 79 yards, 2 TDs
RB LeMonte Booker, Indiana State — 158 all-purpose yards, 2 TDs, 154 rushing yards
TB Christian Turner, Youngstown State — 5 catches, 124 yards, 2 TDs
WR Malik Earl, Missouri State — 8 catches, 163 yards, 1 TD (career-long 89-yarder)
WR Jake Wieneke, South Dakota State — 6 catches, 75 yards, MVFC-record tying 4 TDs
WR Jaelon Acklin, Western Illinois — 5 catches, 79 yards, 2 TDs
RB Ty Brooks, North Dakota State – 11 carries, 127 yards, 2 TDs

Defense
SS James Hendricks, North Dakota State — 5 tackles (5 solo), 2 TFLs, 1 INT (17 yards)
LB 46 Jonas Griffith, Indiana State — 13 tackles (5 solo), 1 TFLs, 0.5 sacks, 1 PBU
LB Logan Backhaus, South Dakota State — 3 tackles (3 solo), 1 INT
DE Darin Greenfield, South Dakota — 7 tackles, 3 sacks, 1 TFL (27 yards)
S Mitchell Brees, Illinois State — INT (35-yard TD), 2 tackles
S Jalyn Powell, Youngstown State — 14 tackles (9 solo), 1 PBU

Special Teams
PK Chase Vinatieri, South Dakota State — 23-yard FG, 6 PATs
PK Sean Slattery, Illinois State — 46-yard FG, 6 PATs
PK Sam Crosa, Western Illinois — 2 FGs (41, 20), 5 PATs
K Cam Pedersen, North Dakota State — 10 PATs
K 38 Jerry Nunez, Indiana State — 2 FGs (43, 19)

Newcomer
PK Sam Crosa, Western Illinois — also nominated at Special Teams
DB Phillip Powell, South Dakota — 2 INTs (9-yard TD), 4 tackles (4 solo)
RB Markel Smith, Illinois State — 10 carries, 88 yards, 1 TD
TB Christian Turner, Youngstown State — also nominated at Offense
LB Logan Backhaus, South Dakota State — also nominated at Defense
WR Isaiah Weston, UNI — 4 catches, 72 yards, 1 TD (26 yards)

Around the BDC: Fairfield pulls away in second half, sends Yellow Jackets to 0-2

http://www.randolphcountyheraldtribune.com/sports/20170902/fairfield-pulls-away-in-second-half-sends-yellow-jackets-to-0-2

CHESTER, IL –  (Randolph County Herald-Tribune.  Please click on the link for the full story.  Here is an excerpt below.)

Quarterback Nick Meyer threw for 201 yards and three touchdowns, but Fairfield pulled away in the second half of a 56-22 win over Chester in the Yellow Jackets’ home opener on Friday

They’re good at what they do,” said Chester coach Billy Belton of Fairfield. “They run that super power real well and that counter and I thought they had 20 more offensive plays than we did and they just wore us down.”

Up next for Chester is a road trip to McLeansboro next Friday, where the Yellow Jackets will face another 0-2 team in Hamilton County. The Foxes were shut out by Johnston City, 14-0, on Friday.

“What I’ve seen is they’re a pistol, veer-option type team,” Belton said of Hamilton County. “Kind of like what we do.”

Around the SIRR: Du Quoin uses big second half to down Bulldogs

http://www.dailyregister.com/sports/20170902/du-quoin-uses-big-second-half-to-down-bulldogs

HARRISBURG, IL (Harrisburg Register. –  Please click on the link for the full story.  Here is an excerpt below.)

Du Quoin fumbled five times, Harrisburg threw two interceptions, and the clubs combined for 21 penalties, but it was still an exciting Friday night at Taylor Field when the Indians were able to hang on for a 33-27 win over the Bulldogs in Week 2 prep action.

HHS (1-1) jumped out to a 14-0 lead after the first quarter and led 20-14 at intermission before Du Quoin (2-0) started a second half rally which was led by its defense.

The positives that we can take from this are that we found a way to win,” said Du Quoin coach AJ Hill. “A lot of things didn’t go our way, we didn’t play very well. We had a lot of penalties and put ourselves in a lot of bad situations right off the bat, but I’m just proud of the way our guys fought back and didn’t let the momentum shifts keep us down.”

“We put ourselves in a position to win, and we were pretty close,” said Harrisburg coach Gabe Angelly. “We told our defense all week long that if we focused on making them have long drives, that they were going to turn the ball over. They didn’t have to do that in Week One. So our gameplan worked out there, but when we stalled out a few different times in a row, and they had the ball in our territory in the second half, especially. We just didn’t execute coming out of halftime.”

Benton, West Frankfort, Illinois News | Franklin County News