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Durand/Pecatonica QB Cooper Hoffman in rhythm, leads key takeaways from Week 5

Matt Trowbridge and Jay Taft, Rockford Register Star
·4 min read

The regular season is now more than halfway over for high school football. Each week, we learn something new. Or confirm something that had been hinted at in earlier weeks. Here are our Week 5 top takeaways by football beat writers Matt Trowbridge and Jay Taft:

QB Cooper Hoffman finding groove

The Durand/Pecatonica junior quarterback Cooper Hoffman, who waited behind his brother Hunter Hoffman to get the starting nod for a team coached by his father Tyler Hoffman, is really in a rhythm this season. He is completing 64% of his passes and has 15 TD throws with zero interceptions, and he's averaging 8 yards a carry with eight TDs on the ground.

He's a weapon all over the field for undefeated Du/Pec.

Du-Pec QB Cooper Hoffman tries to get a pass off before being sacked by Dakota's Conner Mathews in the first quarter of their game on Friday, Sep. 8, 2023, at Pecatonica.
Du-Pec QB Cooper Hoffman tries to get a pass off before being sacked by Dakota's Conner Mathews in the first quarter of their game on Friday, Sep. 8, 2023, at Pecatonica.

"This is a big season for me," Cooper said. "And for this team."

After going 22-for-30 for 214 yards with two passing touchdowns in a 62-14 win over Galena on Friday, Hoffman has now completed 83 of his 129 throws and has yet to throw a pick. He also rushed for 109 yards and three TDs on Friday, and now has 377 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground through five games.

This week, Du/Pec hosts three-time reigning Class 1A state champ Lena-Winslow.

Du/Pec, Le-Win, Forreston set the table

After Du/Pec put up 62 in a big win over Galena on Friday, and Lena-Winslow shut out another team, this time on Saturday afternoon, the matchup of the season (so far) is now set as Le-Win heads to Pecatonica for a Week 6 showdown.

And Forreston also earned its first shutout of the season, to keep the undefeated Cardinals in the mix. So after this weekend, the key late-season stretch in the NUIC continues as Du/Pec hosts Forreston in Week 8, and Le-Win is at Forreston in Week 9.

No one stands out on standout NIC-10 teams

Boylan is 5-0, but its top rusher (Donavan Hanserd) averages 52 yards a game. Hononegah is 5-0 and its top rusher (Estin Fichter) averages 46 yards.

The reason isn’t because they can’t run. It’s because so many players on both teams can run. And catch.

More: 4th down? No problem for Boylan. Time running out? Unbeaten Titans deliver again

In Friday’s games, no Hononegah or Boylan player had even 10 carries. Or caught more than three passes. Yet Hononegah had seven different players break off runs of at least 10 yards in its 50-12 win over East and four receivers had a catch of at least 14 yards. For Boylan, Austin Alonso led the way with 72 yards on eight carries and all four Titans who ran the ball had a run of at least 10 yards. Also, four different Boylan receivers had a catch of at least 14 yards in its 42-15 win over an Auburn team that had won three games in a row.

“I don’t recall ever having this many young men in our backfield who can carry the ball,” Hononegah coach Brian Zimmerman said. “And they are all different runners. Brock Anderson and Grayson Motter run you over. Erin Fichter and Luke Poppe have a little bit of a juke in their step. You never know who’s getting the ball.”

The same is also somewhat true of Belvidere North, the NIC-10’s third title contender, except North runs the ball so much that even dividing the carries four ways has allowed fullback Trent Dinsmore to carry a heavy load and top 100 yards each of the first five weeks, including 142 yards on 20 carries in Friday's 41-14 win over Belvidere. But Nico Bertolino, who had 96 yards, again had a light load, carrying only six times.

Rout city

Boylan's Austin Alonso breaks a tackle and runs in for a touchdown against Auburn on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, at Boylan High School in Rockford.
Boylan's Austin Alonso breaks a tackle and runs in for a touchdown against Auburn on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, at Boylan High School in Rockford.

A year after unexpected parity in the NIC-10 left four teams within one game of first place, the league is as unbalanced as ever with Boylan, Hononegah and Belvidere North five or six touchdowns better than any of the other seven teams each week.

And the NIC-10 is not alone. Byron (5-0) is rolling over the Big Northern Conference. It’s closest game this year is 51-0. Yes. That’s the closest.

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And in the NUIC, Lena-Winslow has outscored five teams 248-36 and Du/Pec has outscored its first five 226-30.

On the other hand, Byron and Le-Win — ranked No. 1 in Class 3A and 1A, respectively — may simply be that good. And Forreston, No. 2 in Class 1A, won each of its first four games by 14 points or less before joining the rout spree with a 46-0 whitewash of West Carroll on Friday.

Add it up and a fun playoff season may lie ahead, but so far there have been little dramatics to the season, except for Boylan’s 35-34 overtime win over Belvidere North three weeks ago.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Du/Pec QB Cooper Hoffman is finding a groove, leading our key takeaways