Week 8 prep football rewind: Sycamore wins Interstate 8; DeKalb drops heartbreaker

Five times in his career, which now features 201 career wins, has a Joe Ryan-coached team reached the semifinal round of the IHSA football playoffs.

And on Friday, a Joe Ryan-coached team won a conference championship for the fifth time.

Sycamore knocked off Morris 42-0 to win the Interstate 8. DeKalb pushed Bradley-Bourbonnais but fell 42-39 on a late penalty.

Here’s a recap of the Week 8 action for Daily Chronicle area teams.

Sycamore 42, Morris 0: At Sycamore, Morris had just stopped Sycamore for the first time and was looking to tie the game in the second quarter.

Caden O’Donnell and the Spartans’ defense had other ideas.

O’Donnell intercepted Morris quarterback Brady Varner and returned it 36 yards for a touchdown, the first of his two interceptions as the Spartans shut out Morris 42-0 to win the Interstate 8 title Friday and remain undefeated.

“It feels amazing. We’ve been talking about it all week,” O’Donnell said. “Coaches keep saying we have the opportunity to go play for a conference championship, and I think we earned it. They were a good team, but it’s because of our hard work we won.”

Morris was last shut out in 2022, 28-0 at Sycamore.

Morris (5-3, 3-2) didn’t get into Sycamore (8-0, 5-0) territory until the second half and did not enter the red zone.

“I told the kids, I’ve been to the semifinals five times as a coach, and this is only the fifth time I’ve been able to enjoy a conference championship. Those are hard. Those are really hard, and you need to really enjoy. We beat a good team tonight, and we made it look easier than it really was. They’re a really good team, and to get through this league and this schedule we had and be 8-0 at this point, if you had told me that at the beginning of the season, I would have called you a liar.”

Bradley-Bourbonnais 42, DeKalb 39: At Bradley, DeKalb seemingly got a stop on fourth down with the chance to start 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.”

The Barbs (0-8, 0-3 Southwest Valley Green) 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.

Kaneland 38, La Salle-Peru 0: At Maple Park, the Kaneland Knights charged into the playoffs with a dominating win against the visiting La Salle-Peru Cavaliers 38-0.

The win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Knights.

The Knights took control of the game from the start. The Knights looked to have an opening kickoff touchdown. It was called back on a penalty, but they still started the drive at midfield. After getting to the 4-yard line, Carter Grabowski punched his way into the end zone to start the scoring for the Knights.

“Our offensive run game was great,” Grabowski said. “We had a lot of guys step up at the tight end position. We had a guy go down in practice and a lot of guys stepped up.”

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-field win of the season 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.

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,” McPeek 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.

* Lenny Eisele contributed to this report