Despite last week’s season-opening loss at state-ranked Polo, the Bushnell-Prairie City High School football team entered Friday’s contest against St. Thomas More with a renewed sense of optimism.
Fueled by dominance on both sides of the ball, the Spartans romped past the visiting Sabers 74-20 in Illinois 8-Man Football Association play.
It was the first win in a home opener for the Spartans since 2021 when they defeated West Prairie 52-6.
“It’s been a while since we’ve won our home opener,” said B-PC senior Jonavan Harrell. “It felt amazing.”
It was also the first victory since week five last season when B-PC edged Peoria Heights 64-62.
“Hopefully, it’s the start of something good here for sure,” said B-PC coach Jacob Schisler.
“This is a great group and it’s a young group,” he added. “We have so many young guys to build around here the next few years.”
“The biggest thing for us was the small things,” Schisler said. “Selling our fakes on offense. Making sure we were picking up blocks we needed to. Communication on the defense.”
After traveling 140 miles north last week to Polo, the Spartans welcomed in the Sabers, who made the 140-mile trip west to Bushnell.
Both teams heavily featured underclassmen. B-PC has just two seniors on its roster, while St. More has just one senior and two juniors.
“We knew they had some big guys and we knew they were young as well,” said Schisler of St. Thomas More. “But they were fighting all the way to the end.”
But one of those seniors for the Spartans is Jonavan Harrell, who scored three touchdowns out of the first five times he touched the ball in the opening quarter.
Harrell scored on runs of 53 and 40 yards, also adding the two-point conversion runs for both scores to give B-PC a 16-0 lead with 4:27 left in the opening period.
St. Thomas More got on the board just over three minutes later as quarterback Sam Horn connected with Sam Kluesner for a 31-yard touchdown that narrowed the gap to 16-6 with 1:18 to go in the quarter.
But B-PC’s offensive assault continued as the Spartans added six TDs before halftime.
On B-PC’s next play from scrimmage after the Sabers’ score, Harrell broke free for a 73-yard TD. Dylan King added the PAT run that made it 24-6 with 57.2 seconds remaining.
The Spartans then executed an on-side kick with Patrick Raines recovering at the B-PC 46. Two plays later, King bolted 50 yards for the score. The PAT pass from Thomas Anderson to Braylon Griffitts was successful, upping the Spartans advantage to 32-6 with just eight seconds left in the quarter.
“We started a little sloppy on defense. I’m not going to lie,” said Schisler. “But we really picked it up there by the end of the quarter.”
B-PC scored four times in the second frame.
Anderson threw a 13-yard TD pass to Zaedin Hart, before Harrell and King scored on runs of 52 and 47 yards respectively.
Keegan Gillette capped the onslaught with a 26-yard score in the final minute of the half.
Harrell added two conversion runs, while King added the third, giving B-PC a 62-6 halftime advantage.
With the running clock in effect, both teams scored twice in the second half.
Gillette scored on a 43-yard run, while Zaedin Hart also scored on a 20-yard run for B-PC.
Horn and Kluesner connected for a 10-yard score with Ashton Hill adding the PAT reception.
Horn scored St. Thomas More’s final TD on a 15-yard run.
B-PC finished the contest with 518 yards rushing and nine TDs on 38 carries.
“The offensive line has been blocking their butts off,” said Schisler. “Ever since the off-season stuff, they’ve come in ready to work.”
“We studied a lot of film this week,” added Harrell. “Studying their defense to see what we could exploit and score touchdowns.”
Harrell recorded 263 yards and four scores on 13 carries, while King added 106 yards and two TDs on six carries.
Gillette had six carries for 78 yards and two scores, while Kaedin Hart added 32 yards and a score on three carries.
“We had good blocking up front and Jonavan Harrell with the run, he had an amazing game,” said Zaedin Hart.
Anderson was 3-for-3 passing for 48 yards. Gillette had two catches for 35 yards, while Kaedin Hart had one catch for 13 yards and a TD.
On defense, Zaedin Hartin had 13 total tackles, including eight solos. He sacked Horn three times.
Harrell added seven total tackles, two for-loss, while King also recorded seven total tackles, including one sack and a fumble recovery.
Gillette chipped in six total tackles, while Landon Lear, Andre Watts and Griffitts added five total tackles apiece.
Horn attempted 26 passes, completing 13, for 214 yards and two touchdowns.
Kluesner had 10 catches for 163 yards and two scores. Hill added one catch for 45 yards.
“We had to contain the outside and watch the pass,” said Zaedin Hart. “We saw a lot of film on their offense and we knew they were going to come in passing on us.”
The Sabers finished with just 14 yards rushing on 18 carries. Kluesner had 11 yards on 11 carries.
The Spartans begin I8FA Central West Division play this week, hosting Peoria Heights (0-2).
B-PC has won the last four meetings in the series, including last season’s nail-biter.
Peoria Heights opened the season with a 22-12 loss at St. Thomas More before dropping its home opener last week to Milford/Cissna Park 48-0.
“We’ve got to clean up our defense and keep our linemen blocking as good as they were,” said Harrell. “I think we can be successful.”
“I tell these guys, every single time we watch film, ‘I don’t care what they look like on film. I don’t care what happened the week before. You’ve got to play the team you’re playing like it’s the best team in the state.’” The Spartans will attempt to win back-to-back games for the first time since weeks 3-5 of the 2023 season when they beat Galva, Metro East Lutheran and Peoria Heights in consecutive weeks.
“We’ve got to keep building and we can’t be complacent with where we’re at,” said Schisler.
