Peotone finished with its best regular-season record in nine years with a resounding 59-6 win over visiting Herscher on Oct. 16 to improve to 7-2 overall.
It’s the best mark for the Blue Devils since they went 8-1 in the regular season in 2017, but they’re not done yet with what they want to accomplish.
“Yep, it feels great, honestly,” said senior running back Nick Cronin, who rushed for 170 yards and three touchdowns. “We’ve just got to go 100% from here.”
Cronin scored two touchdowns on his first two touches of the game — an 80-yard run and one from 40 yards out to put the Blue Devils up 14-0 on the Illinois Central Eight rival Tigers in the first quarter.
“I felt explosive off the ball. The blocks were there, and it was just a big hole,” Cronin said.
“He’s just gotten better as the years gone on, and he’s such a horse for us,” coach Tolly Tsiamas said. “He does a great job blocking and playing defense. He wants to see the other kids do well as well. He was really good. He set the tone for us offensively early on, and we just kind of kept going from there.”
Senior running back Declan McMaster then did his part, scoring on runs of 21, 29 and 15 yards to balloon the lead to 35-6 lead in the second quarter. McMaster broke a shoulder tackle at the line of scrimmage on the 29-yard run and sprinted around the right end for the touchdown.
After Eli Chenoweth recovered a Herscher fumble at the Tigers 25-yard line, Cronin scored his third TD on a counter on the very next play for a 42-6 bulge with 2:14 left in the second quarter.
The Blue Devils weren’t done scoring in the first half, as Cronin picked off a Herscher pass to set up a 14-yard TD pass from Alex Chenoweth to Ethan McNeill for a 48-6 advantage.
“Since JV year, that’s my first (touchdown catch), but I don’t think it’ll be my last,” McNeill said. “We’re going for a deep playoff run this year.”
McMaster finished with 94 yards on the ground, while Eli Chenoweth bulled his way to 53 yards on seven totes. Peotone totaled 417 yards rushing and 20 passing.
Herscher (1-8, 1-6 ICE) was held to 128 total yards.
Peotone finished third in the ICE with a 5-2 mark behind champ Coal City and runner-up Wilmington. The Devils are seeded eighth in the north half of the Class 2A bracket and will host Illini West (7-2) or West Hancock (2-7) in the first round next week.
The Devils are taking it step by step.
“We really tried to focus on just going 1-0 every week,” Tsiamas said. “… I’m just so happy with how our team played, not just tonight but all year, and we’re going to start getting ready for the playoffs.”
With the Devils running the ball 90% of the time, McNeill said it’s an element of surprise when they throw the ball.
“It works,” he said. “We threw a lot during the Wilmington game, and we plan to see Wilmington again. We got a bye week, so we’re gonna keep practicing, keep working hard. The future looks bright.”
Crete-Monee 44, Bloom 6: Dominic Jackson ran seven times for 106 yards and two touchdowns to lead Crete (7-2, 5-1 Southland) to the road win on Oct. 17.
The Warriors drew the No. 8 seed in the south half of the Class 5A bracket and get an opening-round bye. They’ll host either Corliss (7-2) or Champaign Centennial (3-6) in the first round next week.
Manteno 48, Streator 22: Logan Bufford ran foe three touchdowns and passed for two more in the first quarter as Manteno (6-3, 4-3 Illinois Central Eight) opened a 42-0 lead en route to the easy road win on Oct. 16.
Bufford’s TD runs went for 1, 3 and 95 yards and his scoring passes went for 12 yards to Briggs Cann and 38 yards to David Asher. Jeremiah Alexander added a 2-yard touchdown run.
Bufford finished with seven carries for 104 yards, Nick Honkisz had four runs for 81 yards and Alexander rushed nine times for 70 yards. Bufford was 4 of 6 passing for 87 yards.
Manteno is the No. 9 seed in the north half of the Class 3A bracket and will host Mendota (3-6) at 4 p.m. Oct. 24 in the first round.
Vedette staff contributed to this story.