Geneva outscores Metea Valley
Whatever that was Friday night on Geneva’s Burgess Field, it sure looked like fun. Unless you played defense.
In ultimate shootout football, Geneva outscored visiting Metea Valley 61-48 in an Upstate Eight Conference crossover. The combined 109 points ranks 10th all-time in Illinois High School Association records. Unofficially, the teams combined for 1,175 yards of offense and 50 first downs.
One player auditioning for the next cover of the Madden football video game was tireless Geneva tailback Bobby Hess, who ran the ball 41 times for 251 yards with touchdown runs of 1, 25, 4 and 10 yards plus a 60-yard touchdown on a screen pass from Vikings quarterback Nick Derr.
“It was fun,” Hess said of the senior night slugfest. “It was our last game on Burgess Field and we really wanted to win so we played hard. We had (left tackle) Jacob Bastin back, that helped our line. (Right tackle) Connor Chapman played well as always, our whole line (Kyle McNeil, Paul Douds, Jordan Hunter) did great today. It was a fun game.”
Metea tailback Cameron Wilcox broke the 1,000-yard marker early in the second quarter and finished with 186 yards and 22 carries with touchdown runs of 57, 2 and 37 yards. Mustangs quarterback Blaise Bell completed 18 of 28 passes for 342 yards, and receiver Alex Hagemaster caught 10 passes for 219 yards.
“It was a lot of offense, for sure, not a lot of defense. I’ve never been a part of this,” said Hagemaster, who caught touchdown passes of 88 and 37 yards.
After all that, first-quarter Metea mistakes were probably the difference.
Geneva (3-5) scored on its first five possessions and gained early separation when Metea (2-6) lost a fumble on its first series. Dan Hart intercepted the Mustangs on their third, leading to a 25-yard touchdown run by Joe Boenzi. who ran for 108 yards.
Piling on, Geneva’s Colin Griffin, right hand in a cast, blocked a punt recovered by fellow linebacker Cody Murphy, which Hess turned into a 34-7 lead early in the second quarter.
That seemed almost good enough.
“I thought, ‘Boy, if we get one more,’ I thought we could have it and kind of shut the door,” Vikings coach Rob Wicinski said. “But we couldn’t do it, and gave up three quick ones then all heck broke loose. It was a donnybrook after that.”
If nothing else, Metea proved it never throws in the towel.
“We just couldn’t muster enough to stop them,” said Mustangs coach Ben Kleinhans. “Offensively, we put up some big numbers, put up some points — still left some points out there we feel like, too. But proud of the fight, like always.”