Christian Benning-led Streator football puts up 74 points in win over East Peoria

STREATOR – Friday’s season opener against East Peoria couldn’t have started much uglier for the Streator Bulldogs.

But as they say, all’s well that ends well.

It ended very well for Streator, which pulled away in the second half for a 74-29 victory over East Peoria. Senior quarterback Christian Benning ran the ball 19 times for 177 yards and four touchdowns, completed 13 of 23 passes for 279 yards and four touchdowns with two interceptions, either threw or ran in five successful two-point conversions and added a pick-6 defensively for good measure.

“I don’t really look at who scores touchdowns. I don’t really care,” Benning said. “I’m just glad we won.”

Even after a rough, rough start.

“It was just those early, Week 1 butterflies that get you every year,” Benning said. “But we got through it, we stayed tough, we didn’t fight with each other. It was awesome to see. Nobody gave up.

“It was tough for that first quarter. It was hot. The ball was so slippery. It was hard, but we kept it together and did the best we could.”

Streator looked nearly unstoppable from the midway point of the second quarter. Before that, however, the hosts at Doug Dieken Stadium trailed 7-6 through one quarter. Even when the action picked up, it was a sloppy game that saw 24 combined penalties for 203 yards – the Bulldogs penalized 16 times for 137 of those yards – seven combined turnovers and a Streator 4th-and-42 and an East Peoria 3rd-and-36 on the game’s opening two possessions.

Streator, incidentally, went for it on that 4th-and-42 and did not punt the entire night despite later facing a 4th-and-17 and a 4th-and-21. They failed to convert on those three, but did get a 51-yard, Benning-to-Anthony Mohr touchdown pass on a 4th-and-12, part of an explosive offensive performance that led to Streator racking up 530 yards from scrimmage, East Peoria 228.

“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to East Peoria for what they had scheme-wise early. It was great,” Streator coach Kyle Tutt said. “It was a competitive game for a really long time. ... Aand when you play a team like that, you have to continue to play for four quarters, and I thought our guys did a nice job not worrying about some of our not-so-good plays early on and just continuing to do what we do.

“There were some bad things, we felt a little rattled by them, but we kind of settled in as the game went on and started to get comfortable.”

Benning’s offensive touchdowns included runs of 11, 28, 25 and 13 yards along with passes of 63 (to Williamson), 2 (to Williamson), 51 (to Mohr) and 22 (to Mohr) yards. His pick-6 was a 71-yard return to pay dirt.

In addition to Benning’s video-game numbers, Isaiah Brown rushed for 43 yards and a touchdown in addition to recovering two East Peoria fumbles. Matt Williamson caught seven passes for 160 yards and two touchdowns before being ejected with two personal fouls. Mohr hauled in four passes for 103 yards and two touchdowns, and Aidan Stevens recorded three tackles for a loss.

Williamson and James Pawelczyk added interceptions to Benning’s pick-6 just before halftime, a score that finally gave Streator a somewhat comfortable advantage at 38-21.

David Hartwell carried the ball 15 times for 118 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Raiders (0-1).

Streator (1-0) will head up Route 23 to visit rival Ottawa next Friday night in the 102nd meeting of the Route 23 Rivalry.