La Salle-Peru rides tough ground game and a few big passing plays to 34-13 win over Woodstock

WOODSTOCK – La Salle-Peru scored three consecutive times in the first half and carried that momentum to a 34-13 win over Woodstock on Friday.

With the win, which came behind big rushing games from the Cavaliers’ Matt Carrico, Tre’Von Hunter and quarterback Sean Whitfield, La Salle-Peru moved to 5-2 on the season and 2-1 in the Kishwaukee River/Interstate 8 White.

Woodstock’s loss in its final home game of the year leaves the Blue Streaks 3-4 overall and 1-3 in the conference.

Whitfield put the Cavs on the board with a 28-yard touchdown pass to Hunter with 8:16 left in the first quarter.

“I think that definitely got us going, because they were all flying up all game to play the run, and their coach was yelling follow the scouting report and go to the fullback,” Hunter said. “Everything we do starts with the dive, so once we get that going everything else flows off of it.”

That was followed by a 4-yard scoring dive by Carrico, who set up that score with a 50-plus yard run well into Streaks territory.

Carrico was a workhorse for the Cavaliers with 90 yards on 13 carries in the first half alone.

The Cavs failed to convert any extra points after their first two touchdowns, but Joey Shepard kicked a 29-yard field goal to put La Salle-Peru up 15-0 with less than four minutes left in the half. A series of three false start penalties in a row on the Cavs while deep in Streaks territory may have stopped them from scoring a touchdown on the drive.

“We just got very sloppy. Dumb penalties like that shouldn’t have happened,” La Salle-Peru coach Jose Medina said, while noting it was good to see Shepard boot one through the uprights from nearly 30 yards away.

Woodstock quarterback Liam Mickle was determined to close the gap before the break, and he carried the Streaks to a score just before halftime.

After his 32-yard quarterback keeper propelled the Streaks past the Cavaliers’ 5-yard line, Mickle capped the drive with a 4-yard touchdown toss to senior Sean Ryan, bringing Woodstock within one score, down 15-7, at the end of the half.

After the break, Woodstock capitalized on a bad snap on a botched La Salle-Peru punt attempt to take over at the Cavaliers’ 30. The Streaks scored on a 13-yard pass from Mickle to Jared Kniola, but then couldn’t convert the 2-point conversion to tie the gam and instead trailed, 15-13.

“We just made the plays,” Woodstock senior tight end and linebacker Kaden Hunter said of the Streaks’ scoring drives on each side of halftime. “We kept our heads up, and not let the moment get to our heads. We have two more weeks.”

The Cavaliers quickly marched down the field for another score to extend their lead to 21-13 on a Whitfield sneak from 2 yards out with 3:12 to go in the third. The Streaks blocked the extra point attempt to keep it a one-score game.

Mickle picked up a first down on the next drive with a nice 12-yard dish to Hunter, but the Streaks couldn’t keep it going and punted away.

Stops proved hard to come by for Woodstock.

“They got a big group up front, and we started wearing down a little bit. We had a really difficult time stopping their outside run. Our kids played hard, and we just made too many mistakes to beat a really good football team,” Woodstock coach Mike Brasile said.

The Cavaliers’ ground game pounded to within the Woodstock 10, and then Whitfield ran in it again from 8 yards out to push the score to 28-13 with 6:30 to go.

Woodstock failed to put together another scoring drive to stay within reach, and Cavaliers senior Osvaldo Hernandez got behind the entire Streaks defense and Whitfield found him for a 65-yard touchdown pass to ice it, 34-13, with 4:11 to go.

With the lead, La Salle-Peru’s defense was able to make it tough on Mickle, especially in the second half, when he was forced to throw the ball away several times by Cavalier pressure.

He nearly connected with Jonah Habel in the end zone late, which could have brought the Streaks within two touchdowns with about three minutes left, but the officials ruled Habel landed out the back of the end zone as he made the catch.

“My heart goes out to our seniors,” Brasile said. “Those kids are great kids. We have eight seniors that have just given their all to football and been all-in all year. To be disappointed here on senior night is difficult for them and difficult for me, because I really love those kids.”