Peotone’s boys soccer team started this season 7-2.
Then the Blue Devils lost five straight.
The roller-coaster ride continued as they headed into this week with six-game winning streak, including a 3-0 shutout of the host Comets on Oct. 23 to win the Class 1A Reed-Custer Regional.
Blue Devils coach Ryan Murray can pinpoint the reason for the streaky swings.
“It has really come down to health,” he said. “We lost our main striker (senior Titus Cann) when he broke his collarbone and now he’s back.
“He doesn’t get all the goals, but he is the reason that a lot of the goals happen. When he was gone, we went on a losing streak and had two starting defenders miss four games and we had a lot of sickness.”
Now the team is almost at full strength and won its first regional since 2022.
Patryk Krupa, Adam Murray and Carson Logan scored goals for the Blue Devils (13-7) while Tristan Drabik recorded the shutout.
Peotone took a 2-0 lead at halftime, which had good and bad implications.
“That can be dangerous,” Ryan Murray said. “If you are up by more than one goal, you can get overconfident and if the other team scores, the momentum can shift.
“We didn’t go into the second half overconfident and we were doing real well possession-wise and our defense was very solid.”
Elsewhere, Manteno won its third straight regional with a 4-0 victory over Momence at Iroquois West.
Landon Flanigan, Santiago Andrews, Quinn Campbell and Gio Zuniga scored for the Panthers.
The Panthers (15-6) were scheduled to face Peotone on Oct. 26 in their own sectional semifinal.
Panthers make history
Manteno’s girls cross country team won the first regional title in program history on Oct. 24 at the Class 1A McNamara Regional.
The Panthers scored 43 points to beat out runner-up McNamara. All six schools that fielded full teams — including Beecher and Peotone — qualified for the McNamara Sectional on Oct. 31 at Kankakee Community College.
Manteno’s Klarke Goranson finished second with a time of 17 minutes, 53.35 seconds. McNamara freshman Haven Barwegen took first with a 17:41.56. Peotone freshman Emma Pena was a top-five finisher, taking fourth with an 18:56.92.
Crete-Monee finished fourth at the Class 2A Bremen Regional to qualify for the Metamora Sectional. Senior Evelyn Stolzenbach led the way with a seventh-place finish with a time of 20:10.87.
Manteno’s boys team advanced to sectionals with a sixth-place finish. Freshman Noah Nevel led the Panthers with a 26th-place finish with a 17:21.98.
Volleyball crowns
Grant Park’s girls volleyball team won the River Valley Conference Tournament, 25-17, 25-6 over Gardner-South Wilmington.
Manteno won the Illinois Central Eight Conference and Crete-Monee was champion of the Southland Athletic Conference.
Crete-Monee setter Sophie Wieczorek passed the 1,000-assist mark on Oct. 20 against Kankakee.