6 biggest takeaways from Week 4 of high school football in the Rockford area

Week 4 football results are in. But how did they happen and what did they mean? Here are some of the key takeaways from the most recent week of the Rockford-area high school football season:

Lutheran's roller coaster ride continues with win

Lutheran (2-2) has had as much of an up-and-down season so far as any team around, with two lopsided wins sandwiching a pair of sketchy losses to the big boys of the Big Northern Conference.

The Crusaders, who beat Winnebago 56-23 in the season opener, pounded on Rock Falls 43-0 this past Friday night. Lutheran also has losses to Byron (64-0) and Stillman Valley (48-28), two teams that shared the BNC title last year. And head coach Jeff Luedke wasn't quite ready to signal his team as being "back" just yet.

"It's always nice to get a win, but boy do we have a lot of things to clean up regarding mental mistakes and penalties," Luedke said. "We are a work in progress."

Halfback Gavin Sanders has had as much of a roller-coaster ride this season as his team has. He started the year off with a 305-yard, five-touchdown game, but combined for just 52 yards and one TD in the next two. Against Rock Falls, however, he got back on track, rushing for 118 yards and two scores.

5 difference makers

East coach Gary Griffin said one reason Auburn has become the surprise team of the NIC-10 season while East (1-3) has struggled is because five of East’s players from last year now play for Auburn, including three starting linemen and running back Malik Livingston, who ran for 76 yards on 11 carries in Auburn’s 42-8 win over East on Friday. Auburn (3-1) has already matched its win total from last season, when the Knights finished 3-6.

“Five of our guys are starting for them,” Griffin said. “That makes a difference for us.”

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Moving is easy in Rockford Public Schools. Students are assigned zones based on where they live, but they can pick any of the four NIC-10 schools if they enroll at specific programs that are only offered at those schools. Or they can return to the assigned school in their zone if they drop out of those programs.

“A lot of those kids were already in my zone and were in programs at East,” Auburn coach Willie Tolon said. “I am not sure why (they dropped out of those programs), but I am sure they are thankful of their decision right now.”

Gaining 7 to lose 1

How can you gain 7 yards on first down but still lose 1 yard, yet face second-and-3? Sounds impossible, but that’s exactly what East did on the final play of the third quarter in Friday’s 42-8 loss to Auburn. What happened was East started at its own 47-yard line and Javius Catlin ran to the Auburn 46. When they switched sides of the field, the refs somehow left the ball at the 46 on the south side instead of moving it to the north. Even with East coaches screaming it was the wrong 46 from the sideline, the five refs left the ball spotted on the wrong side of the 50.

More: Auburn flexes defensive muscle in another big NIC-10 football win

East picked up the first down with a Catlin 4-yard run on the next play, then was stopped a couple of minutes later on a fourth-down sack. East coach Gary Griffin did not have any complaints since the mistake did not affect the game.

“No. Never. Never,” Griffin said when asked if he had ever seen that mistake happen before. “It’s just what happens, though, in the heat of the battle.”

Kicker with a bad knee

Auburn's left-footed Noah Mandujano is a rare kicker who wears a knee brace on the leg he kicks with. Mandujano, who kicked all six of his extra points in a 42-8 win over East, tore his ACL playing soccer last year. But that's not why he squibbed all seven of his kickoffs.

"I just didn't want to kick it to Catlin," Auburn coach Willie Tolon said of East's explosive running back. "He's fine. He just feels more secure with it (the brace) on."

Big NUIC matchups still couple weeks away

Three of the five games in the NUIC this week pitted undefeated teams against teams that had, well, no chance of winning.

Lena-Winslow, Durand/Pecatonica and Forreston, the three undefeated teams in the NUIC, played three teams with a combined one win on the season. Forreston's 34-20 win over E/PC was the closest, while Du/Pec crushed West Carroll 55-0 and Le-Win pounded on Dakota 52-8.

High school football: Byron's defense stifles potent North Boone passing attack in another lopsided BNC affair

It doesn't get much tougher for the Big 3 next week, as Le-Win takes on another 0-4 team (St. Teresa out of Decatur), Forreston hosts West Carroll, and Du/Pec is at 2-2 Galena.

The NUIC's power alley is coming soon though: Du/Pec hosts Le-Win on Sept. 29; Forreston heads to Du/Pec on Oct. 13; and Le-Win is at Forreston on Oct. 20 for the regular-season finale.

South Beloit, Milledgeville start 4-0 in 8-man

Two Rockford-area squads are off to great starts in the 8-man football league, with both South Beloit and Milledgeville jumping out to 4-0 records with wins on Friday night.

Milledgeville has outscored its first four foes 220-60, capped off by a 50-6 win over Orangeville in Week 4. The Missiles QB Connor Nye threw for 91 yards and two TDs, and he also rushed for 48 yards and two more scores.

South Beloit powered out to a 50-8 halftime lead and rolled to a 50-22 victory over Ashton-Franklin Center on Friday to stay perfect on the year as well. Senior tailback Noah Zwerenz had four rushing touchdowns, two over 60 yards, while senior wideout Dez Hampton had two receiving TDs and sophomore Isaiah Davidson had a rushing TD. Senior QB Caden Myhres, who had the two passing TDs, also had two rushing touchdowns over 50 yards called back for penalties.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: 6 big takeaways from Week 4 of high school football in Rockford area