Eight Spartan football players chosen for Illini Prairie Conference honors
By Fred Kroner
Two St. Joseph-Ogden football players were unanimous selections for the Illini Prairie Conference’s all-league first team.
Junior Coy Taylor was a universal pick by the coaches as a wide receiver. Senior Rowan Musselman was also a unanimous choice as a cornerback.
Taylor and Musselman were among eight Spartans who received recognition.
One teammate drew attention on both the offensive and defensive units. Senior Braxton Waller was a first-team pick as an offensive lineman and a second-team selection as a linebacker.
The other SJ-O first-teamers were senior quarterback Logan Smith and senior placekicker Joe Frasca.
The Spartans’ representatives on the second team were junior receiver Tanner Siems, senior noseguard Ray Gutierrez and senior cornerback Garrett Denhart.
SJ-O ended with an 8-3 overall record.
Smith had a record-breaking two-year stint as the Spartans’ quarterback. As a senior, he completed a school-record 75.5 percent of his passes (203 of 269) with just three passes being intercepted. He had 157 consecutive attempts without an interception.
He also set game records for completions (26) and touchdown passes (six).
Smith was fifth in the state as a senior in passing yards (school-record 2,686 and established the SJ-O career passing record (5,268). He threw a school-record 29 TDs and directed an offense which set the standard for most total offense in a nine-game regular season (4,256 yards) as well as the most TDs in a nine-game regular season (60).
Taylor hauled in 95 of Smith’s 203 completions, a total which stands 10th on the all-time IHSA single-season list. Besides setting the SJ-O standard for receptions in a season, Taylor broke the mark for receiving yards in a season (1,342) as well as in a career (2,579) with one season remaining to raise those marks.
Taylor also owns the Spartans’ career record for catches (176).
Siems produced the school’s seventh-best mark for receiving yards in a season (630) as a junior along with the eighth-best mark for receptions (35). He scored TDs on 10 of his catches.
Frasca nailed 5 of 5 field goal attempts and 43 of 51 extra-point attempts.
The top SJ-O scorers for the season were Smith (120 points), Taylor (80 points), Siems (62 points) and Frasca (58 points).
Defensively, Musselman and Denhart shared the team-lead for interceptions with three. Denhart had a team-best two fumble recoveries.
Musselman registered 69 tackles for the year, Waller finished the season with 63 tackles, Gutierrez had 46 tackles and Denhart ended with 40. Musselman was fourth on the team in stops and all four of the defensive stalwarts were among the team’s top nine tacklers.
