Illini West rolled to its sixth straight victory, while BPCA and South Fulton rallied for victories in area high school football action Friday night.
ILLINI WEST 60, WEST HANCOCK 6
At Hamilton High School, Zack Burling had a 64 yard punt return and a 41-yard interception return for scores as the No. 2 ranked team in Class 3A kept rolling along.
The punt return started a 37-point onslaught in the opening quarter for Illini West (6-0, 3-0) that included a 50-yard pass from Michael Lafferty to Kris Vincent. Stefan Flynn and Mitchell Bears also scored TD before Jesse Holtsclaw's tackle for safety closed out the nine-minute IW barrage.
The Chargers finished with 332 yards of total offense, recording 228 rushing yards on 32 carries. Lafferty completed 4-of-8 for 104 yards as Vincent had two grabs for 81 yards.
West Hancock (2-4, 1-2) had 116 yards rushing - 56 on Ryan Brotherton's TD run with 23 seconds to go. QB Blake Lomax was 0-for-7 passing.
BPCA 48, ATHENS/GREENVIEW 42
At Bushnell, the Spartans squandered a 14-point lead before rallying in the final minute to force overtime - eventually winning the WPT Southeast contest on Logan Lovejoy's two-yard run on their second offensive play in OT.
It was Lovejoy's four-yard run with 23 seconds left that knotted the score at 42-42. The PAT kick was blocked though, forcing the game into OT. Lovejoy finished with 113 yards on 18 carries.
Trey Yocum had 134 yards on 18 carries with two TDs, while Colin Douglas added 13 carries for 35 yards and two scores. BPCA (4-2, 3-0) finished with 343 yards rushing on 57 carries.
Athens/Greenview (3-3, 2-2) got 366 yards and four TDs passing from Korey Kern, but saw their three-game win streak snapped. Justin Hankins finished with 220 yards receiving on 10 catches, while Adam Padgett chipped in 105 yards on four grabs.
SOUTH FULTON 27, HAVANA 26
At VIT High School near Table Grove, the Rebels rallied from a 26-6 third quarter deficit for a key WPT Southeast division victory.
Ian Bridges' 74-yard TD run in the third quarter gave the visiting Ducks (3-3, 1-3) a 20-point lead.
Aaron Parsano's three-yard run followed by Tyler Perry's PAT run with 4:45 left in the third cut the deficit to 26-14. In the final period, QB Dylan Westlake and Brennan Parks connected for a 23-yard score to cut the margin to 26-20.
Nick Shawgo's five-yard run with 5:25 to go tied the game before Dakota Vaughn's PAT kick gave the Rebels the lead for good.
South Fulton (4-2, 2-1) finished with 301 yards of total offense including 197 yards rushing. Perry finished with 168 yards on 21 carries. Westlake completed 7-of-12 passes for 104 yards. Parks had two grabs for 48 yards, while Vaughn finished with three catches for 38 yards.
Havana recorded 303 yards of total offense - 152 rushing and 151 passing. Bridges tallied 134 yards on 14 carries. The Ducks had 11 completed passes in 18 attempts.
Parsano led the Rebel defense with eight tackles.
BEARDSTOWN 21, RUSHVILLE-INDUSTRY 7
At Beardstown, the Tigers jumped out to a 14-0 lead and never looked in recording a WPT Southwest division win.
Beardstown (2-4, 1-2) added a second quarter score and led 21-0 at halftime. The Tigers finished with 207 yards of total offense.
RIHS (2-4, 1-3) got its only score on a 43-yard run by Alex McKelvey with 4:03 left in the third quarter. The Rockets finished with 250 yards of offense as McKelvey notched 104 yards on 14 carries. RIHS quarterbacks combined to complete 8-of-16 passes for 74 yards as Michael Thomas finished with four grabs for 53 yards.
McKelvey led the Rocket defense with five solo tackles and four assists, while Kyle Briney added four solo stops and two assists.
With Friday's loss, the Rockets move closer to missing out on the playoffs for the first time since 1989. RIHS will need to win its final three games to have a chance to keep the area's longest playoff streak intact.
PITTSFIELD/G-P 52, CENTRAL/SOUTHEASTERN 21
At Central High School, the Panthers lost for the fourth straight week as CSE built a 14-8 lead only to see PGP (6-0, 3-0) score 30 points in the second quarter of this WPT Southwest contest.
After getting a Derrick Hull TD pass and a Jake Klingele TD run in the first quarter, the visiting Saukees scored the next 38 points in building a 46-14 lead.
The Saukees finished with 529 yards of total offense, compared to 227 for CSE (2-4, 1-3). PGP QB Jordan Cawthon finished 7-of-9 for 185 yards and two scores. Kyle Harris caught three passes for 130 yards.
Hull finished 5-of-16 for 113 yards with two TDs and two interceptions for the Panthers. After starting 2-0, CSE needs to win its final three games to have a chance of reaching the playoffs.
MONMOUTH-ROSEVILLE 34, LEROY 25
At LeRoy, the Titans bounced back from last week's loss to Macomb in recording the non-conference victory.
Monmouth-Roseville improved to 4-2 on the season as Cody Schreck ran for four TDs and added a pair of PAT passes. Bryan Utsinger also had a TD for the victorious visitors.