Sterling rolls past Rock Island to stay undeafeted in Western Big 6 play

SSTERLING – A fast start put Sterling in control from the get-go Friday night, as the Golden Warriors pulled away for a 56-19 win over Rock Island on Friday night at Roscoe Eades Stadium.

JP Schilling and Antonio Tablante both ran for more than 100 yards, Kael Ryan wasn’t far behind, and Sterling scored on eight of its first nine possessions in the game.

[ Photos from Sterling vs. Rock Island football ]

“Just listening to our coaches, executing, watching film, watching the linebackers and how they execute plays, throughout the week we just studied, and we came out here and played hard tonight,” Tablante said. “We showed we were straight out the better team.”

The Golden Warriors scored on their first three possessions, and five of their six first-half drives ended up in the end zone as they grabbed a 35-13 lead by halftime.

It didn’t matter where Sterling started its drives in the first half, the end result was a touchdown.

A Rock Island fake punt inside its own 30-yard line came up short, and Sterling drove 32 yards in five plays. Even more bizarrely, the Warriors faced a fourth-and-6 when it should have been third down – there was some confusion about whether Sterling’s first down came on the first or second play of the drive – but it was a moot point as JP Schilling hit Kael Ryan on a wide receiver screen and Ryan ran it in from 17 yards out for a 7-0 lead with 9:27 left in the first quarter.

Another three-and-out by Rock Island led to Sterling’s second score, as the Warriors drove 62 yards in 12 plays – overcoming a 16-yard holding penalty in the process – as Schilling ran in from 5 yards for a 13-0 lead. The big play on that drive was a 29-yard Schilling run and third-and-27 after the holding penalty to keep the drive alive.

“If it’s not broke, don’t fix it, so we just kept on going to the running game, and it worked out well,” Schilling said. “It starts with the O-line; they did phenomenal tonight, just pushing it every play. We had a lot of rushing yards, and collectively, we just played really well tonight.

“There are some plays where we read it, whether to hand the ball off or not, and we just go with what we see out there. It worked tonight.”

Sterling’s defense forced another three-and-out, then Tablante capped a 12-play, 82-yard drive with a 4-yard touchdown run for a 21-0 lead with 9:45 left in the first half.

The Rocks started their next drive near midfield, then got a long completion and a personal foul penalty on top of it to get to the Sterling 11. But on fourth-and-3 from the Sterling 4, Quonterrion Brooks had a direct snap bounce off his pads, then he fumbled it as he tried to corral it going into the pile. Sterling’s Tommy Tate recovered just inside the 1.

“When our defense is playing good, out offense will keep rolling,” senior lineman Christian Beasley said. “We’ll get a score, then get a three-and-out again, and it just keeps it rolling. It’s the whole team playing football together.”

Rock Island got on the board after forcing a Sterling three-and-out, as Conner Diiulio connected with Cameron Figgs on a 37-yard touchdown pass.

But Sterling answered immediately, as Tablante broke three tackles on his way to a 6-yard touchdown run to finish off a seven-play, 40-yard drive for a 27-6 lead with 3:17 left in the first half.

“Big credit goes out to the big dogs down in the trenches,” Tablante said. “We appreciate them so much, everything they do, they just make it so much easier for us backs.”

Diiulio threw a short pass on third-and-1 that Joe Allen turned into a 68-yard touchdown to cut the Rock Island deficit to 27-13, but Sterling used three gains of more than 10 yards to tack on a fifth first-half touchdown, as Ryan plunged in from 1 yard out with 16 seconds left before halftime.

Other than the two long touchdown plays, the Sterling defense was tough in the first half, as it held the Rocks to 45 total yards besides on 19 other plays. The Warriors held Rock Island to 83 rushing yards in the game – 80 of it came on one long touchdown run – and recorded five sacks and a tackle for loss.

“We were just excited for this week. It’s Homecoming week, and we knew it was going to be a big game,” said Beasley, who had three sacks. “Watching film throughout the week, knowing what we had to do, knowing our spots, knowing our roles, and paying attention to detail in everything – it all played out just like we wanted.”

Sterling picked up right where it left off after the break, as Ryan bounced off three tacklers on a 6-yard TD run on the Warriors’ first drive of the second half, then after a turnover on downs, Tablante and Schilling had back-to-back 20-yard runs before Tablante crashed in from 1 yard out for a 49-13 lead.

After a fumbled option pitch on fourth down of Rock Island’s next possession, the Warriors took over at the Rock Island 30-yard line and scored in two plays. Ryan broke a couple of tackles on the way to a 20-yard TD run and a 55-13 lead with 3:08 left, setting the running clock in motion.

Quonterrion Brooks, the top rusher in the Western Big 6 coming into the game, was bottled up all night until breaking off an 80-yard touchdown run on the first play after Sterling took the 42-point lead.

Schilling finished with 13 rushes for 124 yards and a touchdown, Tablante added 118 yards and three TDs on 19 carries, and Ryan added 16 rushes for 89 yards and three scores. Ryan also had a pair of catches for 22 yards and a touchdown; Schilling finished 5-for-7 passing for 63 yards.

Brooks crossed the 1,000-yard mark for the season, but it wasn’t easy. He finished with 12 carries for 90 yards; he had only 10 yards on 11 carries besides the 80-yard TD run. Diiulio was 7-for-18 passing for 209 yards and two touchdowns, and Allen had two catches for 79 yards. Figgs, in his first game since gaining eligibility after transferring from Bettendorf, Iowa, during the summer, had four catches for 96 yards for the Rocks.