Streator falls to Herscher 27-12 on homecoming

STREATOR - Things couldn’t have gotten off to a better start for Streator in Friday night’s Illinois Central Eight Conference and homecoming game against Herscher at Doug Dieken Stadium.

Bulldogs senior quarterback Christian Benning returned to action after missing last week’s game with an injury and tossed an in-stride 50-yard touchdown pass to Matt Williamson down the east sideline on the third play of the contest.

However, from there the Tigers’ defense dug their claws in and held the hosts off the scoreboard until late in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Herscher’s methodical offense scored four times in wrapping up a 27-12 victory - their first of the season after three close calls in as many weeks.

“The last three weeks there were 8-10 plays that were the difference from us having a chance to come into tonight 3-1,” said Herscher coach Mike Mosier, his club now 1-4 and 1-2. “But we talked this week about how the focus needs to be on Streator and not the first four weeks, and the kids did a great job of doing that. This was a huge confidence boost for everyone in and around our program.

“Streator (1-4, 0-3) runs a ton of offensive formations, so they are a very hard team to gameplan for. I’m more of an offensive head coach and line coach, but I told my defensive coaches that I wanted to go from our 4-4 to a 3-5 defensive front this week. We had a number of kids playing defense for their first time this season, but, man, did we smarm to the ball all game, and stopping the run has been a struggle for us.”

After Streator’s quick start, Herscher took the lead on its first possession, driving 65 yards on 12 plays, ending with QB Tanner Jones hitting Jack Coutant for a 4-yard TD pass. A bad snap on the PAT attempt was run in by holder Mason Roberts for the 2-point conversion at the 5:34 mark of the opening quarter.

“He’s only a sophomore, but he showed tremendous poise and made some really good decisions when we did go to the passing game,” Mosier said of Jones, who finished 16-of-29 passing for 110 yards and ran for another 31 yards. “He’s gotten better every game for us this season, and we are looking forward to how far he can grow.”

Neither team was able to dent the scoreboard again before halftime.

Herscher scored twice in the third quarter, first on a dash around left end by Kenneth Royal, who replaced injured starting running back Alek Draper (18 carries, 71 yards) just before halftime. Royal finished with 112 yards on 20 carries.

“He’s a senior and this is only his second year playing football,” Mosier said of Royal. “He stepped up when we needed him to with Draper going out late in the first half. He was on fire for us and the offensive line played well, really just outstanding for him.”

The second score of the third for the visitors was a 7-yard pass from Jones to Connor Massie-Devore to make it 20-6.

In the fourth, Jones had a TD run from the 2 with just under a minute to play, while Streator scored on a Benning-to-Anthony Mohr 16-yard TD pass with 29 seconds remaining.

Benning finished 17-of-39 passing for 227 and a pair of TDs and INTs. Williamson had seven receptions for 118 yards, and Mohr six for 89.

Herscher had 335 total yards, including rushing 47 times for 225 yards. Streator finished with 266 yards, but only 39 yards on 12 carries.

“I thought our defense was excellent for almost the whole game,” Streator coach Kyle Tutt said. “We put them in a number of tough positions and I’m not sure what the time of possession was, but they were on the field a lot tonight and gave a tremendous effort.

“We knew Herscher was going to force us to throw the ball, but you can’t have eight dropped passes in a game, pro, college, or high school, and expect to win games. We had a number of plays that if we catch the ball it’s either a first down or touchdown, but we let those opportunities slip away.

“You have to give credit to Herscher. They came in here with a great game plan and executed it very well. They played us man-on-man coverages which we like, but we just didn’t win enough of those matchups.”

Next week Herscher hosts Wilmington, while Streator travels to play at Lisle.

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BOXSCORE

Doug Dieken Stadium, Streator

Herscher 27, Streator 12

Herscher (1-4, 1-2) 8 0 12 7 — 27

Streator (1-4, 0-3) 6 0 0 6 — 12

Scoring by quarter

First quarter

S — Matt Williamson 50 pass from Christian Benning (passed failed), 0-6, 10:55

H — Jack Coutant 4 pass from Tanner Jones (Mason Roberts run), 8-6, 5:34

Third quarter

H — Kenneth Royal 2 run (kick failed), 14-6, 4:15

H — Connor Massie-Devore 7 pass from Tanner Jones (pass failed), 20-6, :32.3

Fourth quarter

H —Tanner Jones 2 run (Jack Coutant kick), 27-6, 1:51

S — Anthony Mohr 16 pass from Christian Benning (pass failed), 27-12, :28.5

Team statistics

Herscher Streator

Total plays: 76 51

First downs: 19 16

Rushes-Yards: 47-225 12-39

Passing yards: 110 227

Total offense: 335 266

Comp-Att-Int.: 16-29-0 17-39-2

Third downs: 13-of-19 2-of-10

Fourth downs: 1-of-5 1-of-5

Fumbles-Lost: 0-0 3-0

Penalties-Yards: 3-34 3-35

Punts-Avg.: 1-49.0 2-37.5

Time of possession: 33:10 14:50

Individual statistics

RUSHING – Herscher: Kenneth Royal 20-112 (TD), Alek Draper 18-71, Tanner Jones 5-31 (TD), Gerrit Osenga 4-11. Streator: Isaiah Brown 3-19, Christian Benning 6-13, Isaiah Weibel 3-7.

PASSING (C-A-TD-INT-YD) – Herscher: Tanner Jones 16-29-2-0-110. Streator: Christian Benning 17-39-2-2-227.

RECEIVING – Herscher: Jack Coutant 7-32 (TD), Mason Roberts 4-6, Jarrett Wakey 2-27, Kenneth Royal 1-36, Connor Massie-Devore 1-7, Alek Draper 1-2. Streator: Matt Williamson 7-118 (TD), Anthony Mohr 6-89 (TD), Isaiah Weibel 2-7, Isaiah Brown 1-12, Jake Hagie 1-1.

INTERCEPTIONS — Herscher: Tanner Jones, Jarrett Wakey. Streator: none.