By Tom Reck
Tribune-Star Correspondent
Casey, Ill.
November 09, 2008 12:30 am
—
Casey controlled all aspects of its Illinois Class 2A high school football game on Saturday with Westville, winning 41-0.
The 11-0 Warriors, seeded No. 2 in the lower bracket, will be at home to 10-1 Maroa-Forsyth, the No. 3 seed, probably on Saturday with the time to be announced Monday.
“The team did a great job. I hope this is just another building block in our season,” coach Keith Sinclair said after the game played in windy, cold conditions before a big crowd of fans.
The tempo for the contest was set early.
The Warriors were forced to punt on their first possession without getting a first down and Taylor Biggs boomed a 59-yard punt that was downed on the Westville 1-yard line.
Leading Westville rusher Brandon Pratt was tackled in the end zone on the next play to give Casey a 2-0 lead and the Warriors made it 9-0 on the ensuing possession with about two minutes left in the first period.
Kaleb Brandenburg scored the touchdown and Clinton Scott added the first of his four extra points. He also kicked a 37-yard field goal in the second half.
Casey forced the visiting Tigers to punt on their next possession and went 65 yards for their second touchdown with quarterback Mitch Snyder going the final yard of the drive for the score.
Westville was forced to punt again on its next possession and muffed the execution as Casey took over on the 4-yard line and Brandenburg scored again on a 1-yard run and the Warriors had a 23-0 lead at halftime.
Casey held the Tigers to 10 net yards rushing in the first half and 53 yards passing. The Warriors had 118 yards in total offense.
Scott’s field goal put Casey up 26-0 and the Warriors scored their final two touchdowns in the third quarter.
Biggs went 52 yards for one score and caught a 38-yard pass from Snyder for the final TD in addition to running for the two-point conversion after his 52-yard run.
Biggs rushed for 74 yards on two plays and caught eight passes for 99 yards in addition to booming his 59-yard punt. Snyder was 9 of 12 passing for 108 yards and the one touchdown and Brandenburg netted 51 yards rushing with the two scores.
Westville was held to 72 net yards rushing and Pratt netted 14 — getting 17 late in the game — as the Tigers finished 8-3 and had a seven-game winning streak snapped by the Warriors.
The Tigers ended up losing to the best. Their defeats have been administered by teams that took a combined 29-1 record into Saturday’s games with two of them being seeded No. 1 in their brackets and Casey at No 2.
Coach Sinclair said last year’s Final Four defeat to Westville had a lot to do with Saturday’s play.
“What happened last year carried over to this game. We had an urgency to win [and] were more aggressive on defense. We had a good scouting report and executed,” he said.
Casey 41, Westville 0
Westville 0 0 0 0 — 0
Casey 8 15 18 0 — 41
C — Brandon Pratt tackled in end zone 6:23 1Q
C — Brandenburg 1 run (Scott kick) 2:01 1Q
C — Snyder 1 run (Scott kick) 6:45 2Q
C — Brandenburg 1 run (Scott kick) 3:01 2Q
C — Scott 27 FG 6:44 3Q
C — Biggs 52 run (Biggs run) 3:43 3Q
C — Biggs 38 pass from Snyder (Scott kick) :37.3 3Q
W C
First downs 8 16
Rushes-yards 24-72 35-196
Passing yards 70 108
Com-Att-Int 9-16-2 9-12-0
Return yards 11 22
Punts-avg. 2-21.5 1-59.0
Fumbles-lost 2-2 191
Penalties-yards 3-25 3-15
Individual statistics
Rushing — Westville, Pratt 8-14, Moser 12-60, Billings 1-2, McMahon 1-3, team 1-(-7). Casey, Seeley 9-26, Snyder 8-9, Brandenburg 10-51, Rhoads 1-3, Clapp 1-5, Elliott 1-8, Biggs 2-74, Evans 1-13, Livvix 1-1, Unzicker 1-6.
Passing — Westville, Moser 7-8-1 41, Billings 2-8-1 29. Casey, Snyder 9-12-0 108
Receiving — Westville, McMahon 3-8, Hathaway 1-11, Davis 1-22, Billings 2-15, Pratt 1-7, Moser 1-7. Casey, Biggs 8-99, McDaniel 1-9.
Interceptions — Casey, Rhoads, J. Thais.
Next — Casey (11-0) plays host to Maroa-Forsyth (10-1) in a third-round Class 2A playoff game at 1:30 p.m. CST on Saturday. Westville concludes an 8-3 season.
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