DeKalb falls despite 2 special teams touchdowns: Daily Chronicle football roundup for Week 8

Bradley-Bourbonnais 42, DeKalb 39: At Bradley, DeKalb seemingly got a stop on fourth down with the chance to launch a winning drive, but a pass interference call let the Boilermakers (7-1, 3-1 Southwest Valley Green) run out the clock.

“They went for it on fourth-and-10 from about the 20, and they threw a fade into the end zone, and we got called for a PI,” DeKalb coach Derek Schneeman said. “We had already burned our timeouts, so they were able to run it out the rest of the way. It’s a tough way to lose. Obviously I wish we had one more chance. We would have scored. But it’s just the way it went down. We were on the wrong end of a tough call.”

Davon Grant had three receiving touchdowns. Billy Miller had a couple big receptions as well, and Mikey Hodge had a big game getting the ball to his playmakers, Schneeman said. He was making his second straight start for the injured Cole Latimer at quarterback.

“We had some big plays from guys who have been making big plays all year,” Schneeman said.

They also had some touchdowns from players who hadn’t been making touchdowns all year. They scored a pair of TDs on special teams plays. DeKalb took the lead in the first half when Bryant Debro recovered a fumbled kickoff in the end zone for a touchdown.

Defensive lineman Pierre Cathina also had a touchdown, recovering a blocked punt and taking it to the house.

DeKalb fell to 0-8 and 0-3 in the Southwest Valley Green with the loss and will host Stagg in the season finale last week.

Genoa-Kingston 25, Rock Falls 13: At Rock Falls, Genoa-Kingston got some late fourth-down stops to leave with the win.

“We have the bend-but-don’t-break mentality,” coach Cam Davekos said. “We saw some things in certain situations on film and were able to take it to the field.”

The Rockets (1-7 overall and BNC) were trying to get their first on-the-field win of the year and pulled to within 19-13 in the fourth. But Nathan Kleba unleashed a 65-yard bomb to Patrick Young to push the lead to 25-13 with 8:30 left.

“We thought we could catch them off guard on first down,” Davekos said. “Patrick made a great break on the ball and made a nice catch. He turned, and his speed did the rest.”

The Rockets approached the red zone but were stopped on fourth down with 2:12 left.

Owen Zaccard had a 10-yard score in the win, Anthony Gum had a short TD run, and Tyler Atterberry started the scoring with a 1-yard run.

“The kids played hard,” Davekos said. “I was happy we got out of there with a win.”

The Cogs moved to 4-4 and will need a win against Rockford Lutheran (6-2) to likely secure a playoff berth.

Alden-Hebron 38, Hiawatha 6: At Hebron, the Giants had some giant plays to seal the win.

Coach Kenny McPeak said it was a large handful of plays that made the difference.

“We gave up eight big plays,” McPeak said. “The rest of the game we were good. Those eight plays, five of them were touchdowns, unfortunately. It just kind of explains it all.”

McPeek said the Giants had a punt return for a touchdown, two long TD runs and one deep touchdown pass.

Tommy Butler had the touchdown for Hiawatha (2-6). After his 48-yard run took the ball inside the 1, he capped the drive with the score. He also had 13 tackles.

McPeek said he was happy with the passing game as well, saying Aiden Cooper had a solid game, as did freshman receiver Colby Wylde.