Byron running game overpowers Seneca 56-21 on way to Class 3A’s Elite Eight

SENECA – Seneca’s run-first, deception-based attack had a pretty good showing Friday night against defending Class 3A state champion Byron, racking up 321 yards of offense and three touchdowns.

When Byron had the football, however, the Tigers were unstoppable.

The Fighting Irish defense – a unit that did not allow a point from the opening kickoff of Week 4 through the final horn of the regular season – quite simply could not stop Byron’s lightning-quick offensive line and stable of wing-T runners.

The Tigers piled up 492 yards from scrimmage, every one of those on the ground, and scored every time they had possession until running out the clock at the end of a 56-21 dismissal of the previously unbeaten Fighting Irish.

“We both run the ball a lot, we don’t throw it much ... but I think at the end of the day, we came out and we wanted it a little more,” Byron quarterback Braden Smith said. “We came out a little harder, and we eventually figured it out on defense.

“The offense was obviously clicking, and the line up front is where it starts for us. A lot of these guys are sophomores and juniors, and the seniors, we have a good line. Byron always has a good line. The running backs look good, but it’s all about the linemen.”

After a three-and-out on its first possession, Seneca answered Byron’s first score – a 20-yard Ashton Henkel touchdown weave – with one of its own on Collin Wright’s 54-yard run to the end zone. The Tigers scored again early in the second quarter on the first of three TD keepers from Smith to go ahead 14-7, but again the Irish answered, this time with a 1-yard burrow to paydirt by quarterback Nathan Grant. Paxton Giertz’s PAT tied the score at 14.

Byron (10-1), however, just kept scoring. Two more Tigers touchdowns came before halftime, with featured RB Caden Considine’s 15-yarder ultimately proving to be the game-winner. Byron led 28-14 at halftime, then 49-21 through three quarters and flirted with kicking in a running clock in the fourth before taking the foot off the gas deep in Seneca territory as the clock ran down.

“We moved the ball on them pretty well,” Seneca coach Terry Maxwell said. “But we just couldn’t really slow ‘em down on defense. ... Their backs run hard, they really get their pads square to the line and get downhill quick, and their line is great getting off the ball and keeping up their blocks.”

Smith (82 yards, three TDs), Henkel (82 yards, two TDs), Considine (72 yards, one TD) and Jacob Ross (71 yards, one TD) led a Byron rushing attack that saw six runners top 50 yards behind an offensive line that was not penalized on the night. Defensive end Braylon Kilduff led the Byron defense with two tackles for loss and a fumble recovery.

Byron will play the winner of Saturday’s Durand-Pecatonica vs. Reed-Custer contest.

Grant from the quarterback position ended up leading the Seneca attack with 46 yards on 3-of-8 passing and 88 rushing yards – most of those coming on his 74-yard, third-quarter sprint to the end zone for the Irish’s third touchdown.

Braden Ellis (64 yards), Wright (57 yards) and Dominick Griffin (42 yards) also led a Seneca team that turned around a 4-5 season a year ago into an undefeated 2022 regular season and a 10-1 final record.

“It was a complete culture change, not just in the football program, but in the whole school and the community,” Ellis said. “Everyone was buying into what everyone else had to offer. We had phenomenal numbers in the weight room over the summer. Just everyone seemed to have enjoyment about sports at Seneca High School again.”

“We talked about it before the game,” Maxwell said, “to be in a place where you’re 10-0 with the defending state champs coming in Week 11 versus being at home Week 11 or going to one of these games last year, it’s just a credit to our kids and the work they’ve put in.

“It’s just phenomenal.”