Sean Hammond: For Peete, Johnsburg seniors, historic run was 4 years in making

JOHNSBURG – After throwing back-to-back interceptions leading to Genoa-Kingston points, Johnsburg did the most predictable thing it had all night.

The Skyhawks had just watched a 21-point cushion become a 21-13 lead in the third quarter. Did their record-setting running back know he would carry the ball often on the next possession?

“Yeah,” running back Alex Peete said with a smile. “We were kind of ticked off as a team.”

Peete carried the ball every down on the next possession, for a total of 40 yards on five carries (a 15-yard facemask penalty helped, too). The Johnsburg student section chanted, “You can’t stop him! ... You can’t stop him!”

And the Cogs couldn’t.

Peete capped the drive with a 22-yard touchdown run and went on to score twice more, finishing with 201 rushing yards and three scores. The senior running back helped propel his team to its first state semifinal with a 42-13 win over Genoa-Kingston.

“This is what we’ve worked for,” Peete said. “It’s taken four years to build up, and I’m just so glad we’ve got this.”

The Skyhawks are one win away from a trip to Champaign for the Class 4A state title game. The only thing standing in their way is the winner of the Chicago Phillips at Herscher matchup at 6 p.m. Saturday.

For Peete and the 18 other seniors on the Skyhawks' roster, this undefeated state semifinal run is what they have dreamed of since they were little kids. Credit them for believing in this magical run long before it came to fruition. As freshmen in 2013, this group watched the varsity squad sputter to a 1-8 season.

They would shower up after the 5 p.m. freshman/sophomore game, then head out into the stands.

“It was mandatory,” senior offensive lineman Joe Moore said. “We had to go into the stands and watch. Alex and I got a couple games on varsity, firsthand experience. Then we were telling our guys, this is what it’s going to be like.”

Peete remembers watching that team struggle through so many close losses.

“You could see the hurt that they were going through,” he said.

Between then and now, these seniors have put in the work, especially in the weight room. Mentally, Moore said, they had to be tough.

“We knew we were going to be something special,” Moore said. “But I don’t know that anybody expected us to be what we are right now.”

Peete’s 201 yards Friday pushed him over 5,800 for his career – into eighth on the IHSA career leaderboard. At times this year, the long plays helped his numbers. But over the past two weeks he has been grinding yards out. On Friday, he averaged just over 7 yards a carry.

“We love to hear people say, ‘Johnsburg is going to rely on big plays or try and get Peete the ball for big plays,’” Moore said. “Then to watch him go out as a guy that’s considered small and run five people over for a tough 6-yard gain up the middle, it’s phenomenal.”

The 6-foot, 185-pound running back has garnered interest from FCS Division I schools such as Illinois State, Indiana State and Southern Illinois, among others. But right now, he still has work to do at Johnsburg. He plans to go watch Herscher vs. Phillips on Saturday. The semifinal already is on his mind.

“It's going to be something we haven’t experienced yet,” Peete said. “It’s going to be a big game. The biggest game of our lives.”

• Sean Hammond is a sports writer for the Northwest Herald. He can be reached by email at shammond@shawmedia.com. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_hammond.