Manteno football rolls to 42-8 win over Streator in ICE play

MANTENO — The Mantneo Panthers scored a touchdown on the fifth play of the game before scoring again on five straight possessions to march to a 42-8 victory over Streator in an Illinois Central Eight Conference contest on Friday night.

Since becoming conference opponents in 2015, Manteno has defeated Streator in all 10 meetings.

The Panthers are now 4-0 overall and 2-0 in league play, the best start for the program since 2014. Streator fell to 1-3 and 0-2 in conference play.

Manteno junior Connor Harrod quarterback rushed four times for 117 yards, three TDs and also threw for a score, while senior running back Niko Akiyama ran 12 times for 196 yards and a pair of TDs.

The hosts held a 417-216 advantage in total yards, including 335-99 on the ground.

“We knew coming into tonight that Streator has some pretty good skilled players that we would need to keep in check. We also stressed all week that we needed to tackle well because their running backs run hard,” Manteno coach RJ Haines said. “We didn’t do those things as well as I would have liked on their first couple of possessions, but I was happy that we cleaned a lot of that stuff up as the game moved along.

“I feel like we are pretty versatile on offense and I think we showed a little of that tonight. We have some talented athletes that we try to get the ball into space. That said, it all starts with our offensive line and I thought they did a tremendous job a game long. They are big, strong, and physical and I feel showed it.”

Manteno led 14-0 after one quarter on a 47-yard run by Akiyama, in which he went around right end and broke a couple of tackles, and a 9-yard dash by Harrod up the middle.

Then after the first of two sustained Streator drives stalled inside the Panthers’ red zone, Harrod scored on a 30-yard scamper before hitting Dylan Mcintyre for a 39-yard pass play with 16 left before halftime to make it 28-0.

Mantneo forced a punt on the opening drive of the second half and two plays later Harrod streaked around right end untouched for a 56-yard score. Then after forcing a loss on downs, Akiyama closed out his team’s scoring and started a continuous running clock with a 31-yard jaunt up the sideline making it 42-0.

Manteno kicker Maddox Toepper was true on all six PAT kicks.

Streator snapped the shut out early in the fourth completing a 7-play, 65-yard drive with QB Isaiah Weibel hitting Matt Williamson on a 23-yard stop-and-go TD. The two then hooked up again for the two-point conversion.

Weibel finished 9 of 16 for 117 yards with Williamson making four catches for 65 yards. Jordan Lukes led the Bulldogs’ ground game with 41 yards on 12 tries, while Demarcus Hunter added 30 yards on six carries.

“We have to continue to focus on the positives we have. I mean we are rebuilding this program right now,” Streator coach Matt Cloe said. “Someone earlier this week pointed out to me that we only have one returning starter on defense and some of these guys had never played defense before this season.

“If we can get things really clicking, keep our confidence, and finish our drives I feel we can win some more games this season. The drive there late wasn’t much different than the couple of drives we had in the first half other than we finished it with a score.

“We are developing, but we just have to keep working on getting better.”

Next week both teams are on the road, with Streator at Herscher and Manteno at Lisle.