Landin Benson’s 213 yards highlights Coal City win against plucky Peotone

PEOTONE – A mile from Peotone Junior High, the last of the harvest is coming in.

On the football field behind the school Friday night, there was an additional harvest – and Coal City reaped it in a 27-13 victory over plucky Peotone.

On a windswept night with gusts to 42 mph courtesy of the remnants of Hurricane Helene, the Coalers benefitted from a pair of big plays and the consistent churning legs of Landin Benson. The senior’s 213-yard rushing night on 27 carries led the attack in a contest that was 6-all at the half.

Only after the intermission did Coal City (4-1, 3-0 Illinois Central Eight) begin to dominate Peotone (3-2, 1-2 ICE), and while Benson was the hallmark of consistency, it was the 71-yard sweep to the left by Gabriel Mchugh that snapped the tie and rocked the Blue Devils to their core.

Mchugh seemed contained, and suddenly was not, blasting down the sideline for the score with 1:28 left in the third quarter.

Peotone rallied gamely, with Chase Rivera capping an 11-play drive with his second touchdown of the night, a 3-yard blast off left guard, to make it 13-all, and hope was alive among the Blue Devil faithful.

The final eight minutes were all Coalers. With sophomore Connor Henline running the attack, and Benson their north star, Coal City gobbled up yardage and the clock. Even when the Coalers were stopped, they weren’t stopped. Benson, who also kicks and punts, scored on a 65-yard run on fourth-and-5 from his punter’s position for a 20-13 lead with 6:27 remaining.

“It was the coaches’ call,” Benson said. “I knew it was going to be a touchdown.

“To come out in the second half and not panic, staying consistent, was huge,” Benson added. “This is a young team with a lot of potential. I think we’ll have a good playoff run.”

Henline hit Gavin Berger on a 13-yard touchdown pass into the harsh wind to seal the outcome with 2:47 remaining.

“We started off kind of slow – penalties and miscues,” Coal City coach Francis Loughran said. “We were lucky to be tied. We made adjustments. We saw the opportunity for the fake punt and the momentum changed there.

“It had been a few weeks since we were really tested. You could get a false sense of accomplishment the last few weeks. This kinda opened our eyes a bit.”

For Blue Devils coach Apostolos Tsiamas, getting closer to the Coalers – last year’s game was a 48-7 thrashing – wasn’t good enough.

“We’re not good enough to not play ... near perfect against teams like Coal City,” Tsiamas said. “We had a couple plays we didn’t execute and they got the win because of it.

“They battled back and competed. But the execution just wasn’t there 100 percent of the time tonight.”

Peotone was led by Rivera’s two touchdowns and the 103-yard rushing performance of Connor Pasch on 26 carries.