Down two scores and no points on the board with time in the first half running out, Springfield High was looking for something that could spark some momentum in the second half.
Jon Hebb used the last of his timeouts to ensure that the Senators had plenty of time to score. With 36.5 seconds left in the half, Armanze Lewis rolled into the end zone for a 10-yard score and pulled SHS within seven of Rochester. With Springfield High receiving the second half kickoff, it could be the Senators’ chance to finally make their charge.
But when Rochester received the ensuing kickoff, Rockets’ coach Derek Leonard saw 30.4 seconds left and figured to give it a shot. With the Springfield High defense playing back to prevent a deep pass, quarterback Tanner Beal found Tristan Stanton for a short pass along the sideline and the junior straddled the edge of the field and picked up 48 yards.
One play later, Mason Jacobs marched into the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown to regain Rochester’s two-score lead en route to a 51-21 win at Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
“We’re not there yet, and man it was a weird game,” Leonard said. “It had that weird feel like Saturday games always do. We were hot then we were really cold. We’ve got to stay steady more often.
“But, we’re young and inexperienced still.”
Hebb did the math thinking about how quick Rochester scored on that possession — the Rockets still left 12.7 seconds on the clock — and said that can’t happen.
“A 14-7 game at half versus a 21-7 game at half is totally different scenario,” Hebb said. “It’s the little, tiny, minute things that keep coming up to bite us and we’ve got to figure out a way to get past that.”
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Rochester (6-2) has now won four straight since losing its second quarterback for the season when Eli Carlson was injured in a 45-17 loss to Chatham Glenwood in Week 4. Bryan Zulauf, who guided the Rockets to the Class 4A state championship a year ago, was lost in a Week 2 28-10 loss to St. Louis Cardinal Ritter.
Just because the Rockets lack two quarterbacks, doesn’t mean Leonard doesn’t have plenty of other options, as evidenced by Saturday’s game in which three different players completed a pass.
Starter Tanner Beal, a junior, was 8-for-10 for 192 yards. Sophomore J.P. Leonard finished 9-for-11 with 149 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. And freshman Khordell Gregory completed an 11-yard pass in his only attempt.
It helps when Rochester has plenty of candidates to catch the ball. Against Springfield, the three QBs found seven different receivers: Jacobs, Jorey Myren, Eli Cox, Stanton, Khornell Gregory, Kaiden Stout and Nate Swaney.
“We’re pretty good at the young levels — maybe as good as we’ve been in a long time,” Leonard said. “But some guys just aren’t quite ready, and we’ve got some seniors and juniors that are doing a great job.
“We’ve got some (young) kids that we really feel good about."
While the Rochester score at the end of the first half was deflating for the Senators, they came out of the locker room with plenty of resolve. It took just three plays for junior QB Brody Scheffler to connect with senior Jaiyden Wilson for a 64-yard touchdown to pull within 21-14 of the Rockets.
“(Rochester scoring 30 unanswered points after that), happens in a hurry,” Hebb said. “
Junior receiver Kale Thurman said the team focused on getting that score down 14-0 before halftime. The Senators have trailed too often at halftime.
“Our guys are tired of being (down) 14-0 right before half,” Thurman said. “We were like, ‘We’ve got to lock it in.’ Once we scored, we felt like, that’s bringing us back.”
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However, Rochester just had a knack all game to keep responding to anything Springfield High could put together.
Stout completed a five-play, 68-yard drive with a 31-yard touchdown run as the Rockets reclaimed a 28-14 lead. Rochester’s next possession saw Leonard throw his second TD pass, an 11-yarder to Jacobs, for a 35-14 lead. Before the third quarter ended, Lach Sullivan put Rochester up by 24 when he connected on a 29-yard field goal.
Freshman Evrim Tabag (11 yards) and Khordell Gregory (five yards) tacked on fourth-quarter scores for the Rockets before Scheffler hit Kale Thurman in stride for a 47-yard touchdown pass to give the Senators’ fans one last thing to cheer for on senior day.
Thurman caught a career-high 13 passes in the loss. He finished with 142 yards and one TD. Scheffler was 20-for-33 for 294 yards passing with two touchdowns. Lewis finished with 63 yards and one TD on 12 carries.
“We were able to run the ball, move the ball, we were able to throw the ball a little bit,” Hebb said. “We were just trying to take advantage of what they were giving us. But that’s a heck of a football team. A 5-2 Rochester team is not your typical 5-2 team.”
Stout led the Rockets’ running backs with 82 yards and one TD on 12 carries. Sophomore Isaac Hardas scored on a 4-yard run to give Rochester a 14-0 lead with 4 minutes, 23 seconds left in the first quarter. Myren opened the scoring for Rochester with a 55-yard touchdown catch from Leonard.
“(Hardas) is a sophomore we feel really good about,” Leonard said. “Coming in, he was our fifth running back, and now he’s second or third. That’s just how it is.”
Springfield High closes the season by leaving town on Friday for the first time since a Week 2 road game at Decatur MacArthur when the Senators travel to Chatham Glenwood (6-2) to close out the regular season. Rochester and Sacred Heart-Griffin will put their combined 15 state championships since 2005 on the line when the Rockets host SHG (5-3) on Friday.
The Illinois High School Association will release its eight classes of playoff pairings on Saturday night.
Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com , Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Late first-half TD leads Rochester past Springfield High
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