A memorable season has drawn to a close for the Kewanee High School football team. The grind-it-out running style of the Peoria Notre Dame Irish proved to be too much for the Boilermakers to overcome.
The backfield trio of Ben Mullens, Jack Hanley and Lawson Alwan combined for 313 yards rushing to help propel Peoria Notre Dame to a 28-13 win over the Kewanee Boilermakers.
The Boilers exit post season play with a record of 8-2 on the season and 4-1 in Three Rivers Conference play. The No. 14 Irish (6-4) will move on to play the winner of Saturday’s No. 6 Carterville (7-2) and No. 11 Harrisburg (6-3) game.
The first half of play in Friday night’s Class 4A playoff game was what many a prognosticator thought it would be, which was low scoring. The score at halftime was 7-7.
Kewanee was the first to put points on the board. On their first possession, the Irish advanced the ball to their own 41 yard line, but failed to convert on a 4 and 10 play.
The Boilers took over on downs at the Notre Dame 41. A short drive that included a 15 yard keeper by Clark, a 9 yard run by Duarte and a 7 yard gainer by Draven Peterson, help set up a first and goal by Alex Duarte. The junior running back punched it in from two out with 4:31 left in the first quarter for the 7-0 Kewanee lead.
PND’s second drive was a prime example of the type of drive that can wear opposing defenses down. The sustained drive covered 97 yards, involved six first downs and chewed up about seven minutes of clock.
Junior wingback Ben Mullens had gains of 31 and 13 on the drive. His final run of eight yards resulted in PND’s first score of the game. In all, Mullens racked up 68 yards on the drive and the score was knotted at seven with 9:30 left in the first half.
The Boilers returned the favor with a sustained drive of their own on their next possession. A touch back would have KHS starting at their own 20.
On the drive, Clark had a keeper for 11, Duarte ran and dove to the 50 for a gain of seven and Clark completed a 14 yard pass to Cruz Paredes, to the 32 yard line.
Kewanee would ultimately come up empty and turned the ball over to PND with 3:33 left in the half.
Neither team was able to capitalize on their final possession of the half. The Irish turned the ball over at Kewanee’s 40 yard line with 30 seconds left. Ben Taylor crossed over midfield and hauled in a 14 yard pass before going out of bounds, but eventually the play clock ran out.
At halftime, the Irish had 135 yards total offense and the Boilermakers had 123.
Kewanee’s first possession of the third quarter was marred by penalties. Facing a third and 26, the Boilers were forced to punt.
PND took advantage, starting at their own 47. Runs of 12 and 16 by Hanley and a 13 yard catch by Alwan help set up PND’s second score.
Irish QB, O’Neill ran in the one yard keeper and the PAT kick was good for the 14-7 PND lead.
Kewanee’s next drive appeared to be promising. Two big pass plays had the Boilers down to PND’s 21 yard line. The first pass from Clark was to Brady Schiltz for a gain of 15 yards. The second was a 38 yard pass to Davontae Jordan.
What followed was a holding call on KHS. After the 15 yard penalty, the Boilers were looking at a third and 21.
An incomplete pass to Schiltz followed and then a 15 yard interference penalty was called on PND. Now, facing a 4 and 6, Clark attempted a pass to Taylor, but it was incomplete.
PND then put together another long, grinding drive. The dagger was a 36 yard run by Mullens to the Kewanee 13. A couple carries later, Alwan ran it in from two out and their lead was 21-7 with 9:05 left to play.
Kewanee then made it to midfield after 11 and 12 yard pass completions from Clark to Welgat and Schiltz, respectively. With 7:49 left to play, Clark threw a pass that was intercepted by Bryce Seaton.
Blake Johnston then tacked on another quarterback sack to add to his school records of 15 (career) and 12 (season) sacks.
Not deterred, O’Neill then handed the ball off to Mullens who ran the remaining 40 yards to paydirt, with the score now 28-7.
The PND kick-off sputtered and landed at midfield, so Kewanee mounted one last drive with just under five minutes left. Clark connected with Jordan just inside the PND 29 for a gain of 17 yards.
In the end, it was Clark who swept to his right and into the end zone from seven yards out, capping off his distinguished high school career with one last TD. His PAT kick hit the post and bounced to the outside, making the final score 28-13.
GAME STATS:
The Irish finished with 336 yards rushing. Mullens had 14 carries for 176 yards, Alwan had 18 for 59, Jack Hanley carried the ball 10 times for 78 yards and Lawson O’Neill had 9 carries for 23 yards.
O’Neill completed 2 of 7 passes for 13 yards.
Kewanee tallied 343 yards total offense (191 in the air and 152 on the ground).
Clark was KHS’s leading rusher. He had 15 carries for 101 yards and Duarte had 10 for 38 yards.
Clark completed 13 of 27 passes for 191 yards. His primary targets were Davontae Jordan (4 catches for 71 yards), Brady Schiltz (3 for 48), Ben Taylor (2 for 25) and Cruz Paredes (2 for 24).
Draven Peterson had 7 solo tackles and 5 assists. Duarte had 7 solo, 4 assists. Blake Johnston had 7 solo, 2 assists. Paredes had 5 solo, 4 assists. Jordan had 5 solo, 4 assists. Leo Gandarilla had 4 solo, 4 assists.
