Unity wins battle of postseason rivalry with Williamsville
WILLIAMSVILLE — For just the second time in the last 14 football postseasons, Williamsville’s season is done after just one round of the playoffs.
No. 9 Tolono Unity (8-2) beat No. 8 Williamsville 35-21 on Saturday at Paul Jenkins Field in a Class 3A first-round game by scoring twice in the fourth quarter after the Bullets (7-3) matched the Rockets blow-for-blow in the first three quarters.
A turnover on downs at the 50-yard line led to Unity’s go-ahead touchdown with 3 minutes, 43 seconds left. An interception on another failed fourth-down turned into a 59-yard back-breaking score with 2:12 left.
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Unity quarterback Dane Eisenmenger found Joe Saunders for three touchdown passes.
Unity will host No. 1 Du Quoin (10-0) in the second round. Du Quoin beat No. 16 Monticello (5-4) 28-21.
Big gains, big stops
The run game had been Williamsville’s bread and butter all season. Just last week in a 51-22 Sangamo Conference win at Auburn, the Bullets rushed for 512 yards, led by junior Braddock Cates’ 330 yards and five touchdowns.
Once again, Cates led Williamsville on Saturday, this time with 141 yards and one touchdown on 29 carries.
But Unity’s defense relied on the bend-but-don't-break method often. Williamsville punted three times and turned the ball over on downs three more times.
Williamsville converted four of 15 times on third downs and were 3-for-7 on fourth-down tries. In the fourth quarter, the Bullets faced a third-and-seven from their own 44. Two plays later, Williamsville turned it over on downs after Mason Lyttaker picked up two yards on fourth-and-three from the WHS 48 after getting close to the Unity 49.
“All year long, we’ve been able to get 2-3 yards so we put it in the hands of our offense and those guys and we’ve done that all year; that’s just who we are,” Williamsville coach Aaron Kunz said. “Could we second guess that? Yeah. If we punt, do we get the stop? I don’t know.
“If we get the first down and go down and score, it’s the greatest thing. If we don’t get it, we’re dumb. We took chances on fourth down the whole Maroa game; we took chances today. Our (offensive)-line has been amazing and our running backs have been amazing. We were right there. We were inches away from getting it. It was my decision and I would make it again if we were playing next week.”
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Kunz said without the benefit of video replay, he doesn’t know if Lyttaker got to the down marker.
“It was right there. It could’ve gone either way but I’m not going to say it was a bad call,” Kunz said. “That’s what happens in football: you get a spot and sometimes you get a favorable one and sometimes you don’t. I’m not sure he had it, but I’m not sure he didn’t.”
Six plays later, Garrett Richardson scored on an 18-yard run to give the Rockets the lead for good.
“They do a great job,” Unity coach Scott Hamilton said of Williamsville. “I’m just proud of our kids for hanging in there. We just kept battling and made some plays. This time of year, you’re just happy to move on.”
Postseason rivalry
The Bullets and Rockets have met five times in the postseason with alternating wins. Unity — which has finished second in the state six times this century — won the first matchup, 10-7, in the 2012 Class 3A quarterfinals. The next year, Williamsville beat Unity 45-7 in the second round. Unity came out on top 28-7 in the 2021 3A quarterfinals before Williamsville avenged that loss in last year’s 3A semifinals, 12-7.
Williamsville won the Class 3A state championship in 2019 and finished second twice — in 2014 and in 2022. It was a premier first-round playoff game for two programs with deep postseason aspirations but it could’ve been avoided, Hamilton said.
“I guess that’s what happens when you go 7-2,” Hamilton said of the two teams’ regular-season records. “Don’t go 7-2 and that won’t happen. I’ve got all the respect for (Williamsville). We were fortunate to get out of here today.”
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: IHSA football: Williamsville offense can't get big play to beat Tolono Unity
