Pecora's four TDs lead Eureka over Red Devils
Oct. 29—EUREKA — Caden Pecora ran for 169 yards and four touchdowns, AJ Truman threw two TD passes to Braden Casazza and Eureka swamped Huntley Project 47-18 Saturday in the State B football playoffs.
Huntley Project (5-5) led the game 6-0 early on a 51-yard burst from Jered Cook, but Pecora's first touchdown, covering 3 yards, and Timothy Schmidit's PAT kick put the Lions (9-1) up for good with 8:09 left in the first quarter.
A 6-yard scoring run by Pecora made it 14-7 less than four minutes later; after Brayden Schmidt scored on a 21-yard run for Project, Eureka scored the game's next 33 points.
"Our boys played extremely tough today," Eureka coach Trevor Utter said. "Huntley poses a very good run threat and outside of big play, we shod them down very well."
Truman had a 1-yard scoring run to make it 21-12, and the Lions tacked on two TDs in the final 1:38 of the first half: a 14-yard run by Pecora and a 49-yard pass from Truman to Casazza.
Tristan Butts had a quiet day on offense — two catches, 45 yards — but set up both of Cassaza's TDs. His interception set up the first, and then he had a long punt return ahead of a 13-yard strike from Truman to Casazza with 8:18 left in the game. That made it 47-12.
Pecora's final scoring run covered 30 yards late in the third quarter.
"Caden Pecora had a great game running the ball, and really paced us in the run game," Utter said. "They were doing a great job of bracket coverage on Tristan Butts, which opened up some opportunities for other kids like Braden."
Casazza had three catches for 77 yards, and Truman completed 7 of 15 passes for 135 yards. He was intercepted once. Pecora had 19 carries and Josh Lembertsen picked up another 59 yards and six rushing attempts. The Lions piled up 404 yards of offense.
Their victory, along with Boudler's 27-18 win at Northern champion Glasgow on Saturday, gives the Lions another home game: They'll play the Panthers at 1 p.m. Saturday.
H. Project 6 6 0 6 — 18
Eureka 14 20 6 7 — 47
HP — Jered Cook 51 run (kick failed)
E — Caden Pecora 3 run (Timothy Schmidt kick)
E — Pecora 6 run (Schmidt kick)
HP — Brayden Schmidt 21 run (2-point PAT failed), 11:14-2Q
E — AJ Truman 1 run (Schmidt kick)
E — Pecora 14 run (Schmidt kick)
E — Braden Casazza 49 pass from Truman (kick blocked)
E — Pecora 30 run (2-point PAT failed)
E — Casazza 13 pass from Truman (Schmidt kick)
HP — Kooper Beard 21 pass from Cook (2-point PAT failed)
