Newman holds off Orion to win a TRAC crossover contest on the road

Special teams played a big part in Newman’s 13-12 road win over Orion on Friday night, as both Comet touchdowns came directly from punts.

Newman opened the scoring with Ayden Batten’s 63-yard punt return in the first quarter. Then, leading 7-6 early in the fourth quarter, a snap over the head of the Orion punter was recovered by Newman, and Carter Rude scored on a 1-yard run with 9:50 to play to stretch the lead to 13-6.

Orion scored a touchdown with 2:29 to play to get within one, but the Comets stopped the Chargers’ two-point conversion try, then recovered an onside kick and ran out the clock.

In a back-and-forth game, the Comets shut down Orion’s run game and moved the ball well on offense, but couldn’t finish off drives thanks in part to 16 penalties for 110 yards on the night.

Nolan Britt led Newman with 16 rushes for 38 yards, while Rude added nine carries for 16 yards. Gabe Padilla had 14 yards on three carries, and Daniel Kelly ran for 10 yards on three rushes.

JJ Castle completed three passes for 6 yards, and Rude completed two passes for 20 yards. Padilla had three catches for 21 yards, and Batten had two catches for 5 yards for the Comets.

Stillman Valley 41, Oregon 6: The Hawks lost a Big Northern Conference contest on the road, falling behind 21-0 before scoring with 2:22 left in the first half.

Noah Reber sprinted in from 36 yards out for the lone score for Oregon (1-2).

Stillman added a fourth touchdown before halftime to take a 27-6 lead at the break.

Reber finished with 79 rushing yards on 15 carries. Griffin Marlatt had three catches for 58 yards to lead Oregon receivers.

Stillman outgained Oregon 446-289 in total yards; 419 of the Cardinals’ yards came on the ground compared to 155 for the Hawks.

Mendota 49, Bureau Valley 23: The Trojans piled on 28 first-quarter points and rolled to a decisive Three Rivers Mississippi win over the Storm.

Bureau Valley scored on a second-quarter safety to cut the deficit to 28-2, and Bryce Helms followed with an eight-yard touchdown run on the ensuing drive to make it a 28-8 game.

The Storm got another safety in the fourth quarter, as well as a pair of touchdown runs: a 3-yarder from Mason Goossens and a 2-yarder from Elijah Endress. Endress racked up 61 yards on eight carries as the leading Bureau Valley rusher, while Isaac Attig compiled 41 rushing yards on three carries, and Goossens added 29 yards on 19 totes.

Brock Shane had one catch for 30 yards to pace Storm receivers.

Fulton 31, Durand-Peactonica 22: The Steamers stayed undefeated with an NUIC road win in Durand, avenging a Week 3 loss in Fulton last season.

Fulton (3-0) led 7-0 after the first quarter, but Du-Pec came back to take a 14-7 lead with 4:33 left before halftime. The Steamers answered with a Ryan Eads 5-yard touchdown run with 7:47 left in the third period to take a 17-14 lead, then Brayden Dykstra connected with Baylen Damhoff on a 31-yard scoring strike late in the third to make it 24-22.

After the Rivermen scored 6 seconds into the fourth quarter to cut the Fulton lead to 24-22, Lukas Schroeder answered with a 2-yard TD run to stretch the margin back to 31-22. Conner Sheridan’s interception with 1:01 left sealed the victory, which keeps the Steamers tied atop the conference standings with Lena-Winslow.

Forreston 34, Eastland-Pearl City 21: The Cardinals built a 26-7 halftime lead and held off a second-half Wildcatz charge for a NUIC win.

Johnny Kobler scored on runs of 5 and 6 yards, and amassed 137 rushing yards on 23 carries to lead Forreston.

Micah Nelson rushed for 55 yards and a touchdown on seven carries, Kaleb Sanders had 50 yards with a touchdown on four carries, and Quinten Frederick chipped in 54 yards on 10 carries for Forreston.

Carsen Heeren passed for 179 yards and a touchdown, and rushed for a touchdown to lead EPC. Brady Sweitzer racked up 49 rushing yards and a touchdown as the leading Wildcatz rusher. His touchdown run was a 34-yarder.

Polo 46, St. Thomas More 0: The Marcos rolled to an eight-man win at home, rushing for 224 yards while limiting the Sabers to 98 total yards.

Brock Soltow had three rushing touchdowns, a passing touchdown, and a TD catch for Polo (2-1), and he finished with 136 yards on 25 rushes. He had scoring runs of 8, 9 and 2 yards for the Marcos’ first three touchdowns, then threw a 5-yard TD pass to Cayden Webster before Webster returned the favor to Soltow with a 15-yard scoring strike to give Polo a 38-0 lead at halftime.

Webster threw for 47 yards on 4 for 10 passing, while Avery Grenoble added 60 yards on 14 carries.

Defensively, Polo picked off a pair of passes and also forced two fumbles, recovering both. St. Thomas More had 53 yards rushing and 55 yards passing.