While Boylan's stars live up to hype, Hononegah unveils two of its own in classic game
The stars came out to play when Hononegah met Boylan for sole possession of the NIC-10 football league.
The two state-ranked teams traded haymakers. Connor Dennis had the second-biggest passing game in Boylan history and Rasheed Johnson caught two touchdown passes of over 60 yards and also had a 93-yard kickoff return called back by a penalty.
Hononegah’s Isaiah Houi, the player Boylan said it wanted to face to see how good it was, caught a 55-yard score, intercepted a pass in the end zone on defense and returned a kickoff past midfield.
The difference was Hononegah unveiled two new — or at least unheralded — stars and needed both to edge Boylan 24-21 Friday.
More: Why Hononegah vs. Boylan is NIC-10's best football rivalry in 30 years — maybe ever
Cole Schmall caught seven passes for 156 yards, tied for fourth-most in Hononegah history, and senior fullback Greyson Motter, in his first season on varsity, had his first 100-yard rushing game to propel Hononegah (6-0), ranked No. 10 in the state in Class 7A.
“Schmall was a superstar tonight,” said Hononegah quarterback Cole Warren, who completed 13 of 23 passes for 239 yards and two TDs. “He made plays. He’s done it all year, but I don’t think anybody knew how good he was. He’s a hell of a player.”
Two or three times, Schmall outjumped a pair of Boylan defenders to make a crucial catch.
“Sometimes you’ve got to put it all on the field,” said Schmall, who came into the game second in the conference in receiving with 239 yards, but was almost 140 behind Houi. “I did everything I can to help this team pull through.”
More: Rasheed Johnson is Boylan's big-play threat
Motter, who had only one carry in the first half, ran for 109 yards on 19 carries. Hononegah had only 32 yards rushing on 15 carries in the first half — in part because of minus-32 yards on a botched punt snap that gave Boylan the ball on the 5 late in the second quarter and enabled Boylan (5-1) to take a 14-10 lead. But Motter ran nine times on a 14-play, 13-run drive to open the second half that gave Hononegah the lead for good at 17-14.
He also picked up two first downs with four straight runs to help Hononegah run the final 2:48 off the clock after stopping Boylan, ranked No. 5 in Class 4A, on downs at the 28, just out of field goal range.
“We have so much talent, we have always had talent that people didn’t know about, especially Motter and especially Cole (Schmall),” Hononegah defensive end Evan Pilgrim said.
Warren’s 69-yard pass to Schmall seemed to sew up the game, giving Hononegah a 24-14 lead with 8:11 left. But Dennis (18 of 39 passing for 321 yards) threw a 62-yard pass two plays later to Johnson, who made a Willie Mays-style over-the-head fingertip catch and run for the most spectacular big play of the night.
“That’s what this game was all about. It was big play after big play,” Houi (75 yards on four catches) said. “That’s what made it so fun and so exciting.”
But in the end, the game may have been decided by Motter’s series of small plays as he helped Hononegah grind out the clock. This was the sixth time in 11 years that the NIC-10's top rivalry game has been decided by three points or less.
“He didn’t score at all,” Houi said, “but if you wanted the game, you know he was the best player on offense. We needed to keep Boylan’s offense off the field as much as we could.”
Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Unheralded Hononegah duo steps up in instant-classic win over Boylan
