Spartan football ends regular season with win at PBL
By FRED KRONER
Displaying a balanced offensive attack that featured seven players running the ball or catching passes, St. Joseph-Ogden’s football team ended the regular season with a 50-21 victory at Paxton-Buckley-Loda on Friday (Oct 20).
The Spartans (7-2) will start into the postseason on Saturday (Oct. 28) at Dick Duval Field against Carlinville (6-3). Kickoff will be at 2 p.m.
SJ-O enters the playoffs with a three-game winning streak.
“From the word ‘Go,’ we did a good job of establishing the run early (at PBL),” Spartans’ coach Shawn Skinner said. “It was important that we established the run, and Logan (Smith) did a good job spreading the ball around to those receivers.”
Justice Wertz rushed for a season high 101 yards on 15 carries. He scored two touchdowns.
Skinner said the game plan is not to feature one particular player.
“We’re not stuck on anything in particular,” he said. “We’ll take what they give us.
“Justice was a workhorse.”
The Spartans scored on their first possession at PBL and built their lead to 26-14 shortly before halftime.
“With under 2 minutes to go in the second quarter, Rowan Musselman intercepted a third-down pass,” Skinner said. “We had a short field and converted that into a TD.
“They got the ball to start the second half, but on the third play, Colin Wayland intercepted a pass and we converted that.”
The SJ-O lead suddenly ballooned to 40-14 and before the third quarter ended a Joe Frasca field goal increased the margin to 43-14.
The Spartans eclipsed the 200-yard mark in both rushing and passing, amassing 463 overall.
Smith completed 15 of 20 passes for 252 yards and four TDs.
His primary targets were Tanner Siems (six catches, 86 yards and three TDs), Coy Taylor (four catches, 71 yards and one TD) and Tim Blackburn-Kelley (five catches, 65 yards).
Taylor was withheld from the second half of the PBL game with an injury, but Skinner anticipates that the junior will be available this weekend.
Smith also rushed for 43 yards on seven carries and tallied his 15th TD of the year.
Defensively, SJ-O limited PBL’s 1,000-yard rusher, Robert Boyd Meents, to 56 yards on the ground.
“We tweaked a few things and changed the way we defended the option,” Skinner said. “The outside linebackers (Braxton Waller, Nolan Earley and Carson Sarnecki) took him on the option and forced the quarterback to keep the ball.
“Our defensive line did a good job, too.”
In Carlinville, the Spartans will tangle with a 6-3 team that started the season with a 1-2 record and finished with back-to-back wins.
The Cavaliers have an enrollment of 412 students (compared to SJ-O’s 432) and scored an average of 30.2 points per game this year while allowing an average of 21.4.
Cartlinville is in the playoffs for the 37th time and the 17th in a row. SJ-O is making its 33rd postseason appearance.
The Spartans average 41.7 points per game and allow an average of 21.9.
“They are a lot like us,” Skinner said, “a high octane offense. They can run or pass.
“Defensively, they try to create pressure and like to make you win 1-on-1 matchups. It’s a different defense than we’ve faced all year.
“It’ll be a formidable task for us. It’s a big deal that the first round game is at home.”
SJ-O reached the seven-win mark in the regular season for the first time since 2015.
