Eighty-second game-winning drive right here.
ALTHOFF v TOLO 53-52- GAME Althoff
- Thread starter crusader_of_90
- Start date
Eighty-second game-winning drive right here.
Here is an acticle and some points from it:
www.oursentinel.com
Unity head football coach Scott Hamilton said Althoff Catholic (4-0) was the best team he has coached against in his career.
Unity quarterback Dane Eisenmenger finished with a career and program best of 543 yards. Eisenmenger completed 27 of his 42 passes against the Crusaders. Receiver Tre Hoggard amassed a program-best 266 receiving yards, breaking a 34-year-old record.
Unity's offense also reset the mark for the most yards in a game from 639 yards to 666 yards, of which 543 were produced by their stable of seven sticky-fingered receivers.
To date, Friday night's game was the highest-scoring game ever played at Hicks Field.
Althoff was led in scoring by 5-foot-11, 188-pound Oregon commit Dierre Hill Jr. Hill ran for 255 yards and caught four passes for 48 yards. The senior scored five touchdowns, the last on a nine-yard pass to set up the Crusaders' game-winning two-point conversion with seven seconds left in the non-conference contest.
Hamilton told the team after the game that, having coached over 400 games, there has only been a handful in which he thought every player on the field would have to play at their absolute best to even have a chance of winning.
"I give a lot of credit to our kids. I just don't have enough great things to say about our kids, our coaches, our plan, and how the kids executed. We just wanted to keep throwing punches at them and see what we could get."
The Sentinel
The Sentinel is an online newspaper serving Champaign, Urbana, Ogden, Philo, Royal, St. Joseph, and Tolono with local sports, features, and news.
Unity head football coach Scott Hamilton said Althoff Catholic (4-0) was the best team he has coached against in his career.
Unity quarterback Dane Eisenmenger finished with a career and program best of 543 yards. Eisenmenger completed 27 of his 42 passes against the Crusaders. Receiver Tre Hoggard amassed a program-best 266 receiving yards, breaking a 34-year-old record.
Unity's offense also reset the mark for the most yards in a game from 639 yards to 666 yards, of which 543 were produced by their stable of seven sticky-fingered receivers.
To date, Friday night's game was the highest-scoring game ever played at Hicks Field.
Althoff was led in scoring by 5-foot-11, 188-pound Oregon commit Dierre Hill Jr. Hill ran for 255 yards and caught four passes for 48 yards. The senior scored five touchdowns, the last on a nine-yard pass to set up the Crusaders' game-winning two-point conversion with seven seconds left in the non-conference contest.
Hamilton told the team after the game that, having coached over 400 games, there has only been a handful in which he thought every player on the field would have to play at their absolute best to even have a chance of winning.
"I give a lot of credit to our kids. I just don't have enough great things to say about our kids, our coaches, our plan, and how the kids executed. We just wanted to keep throwing punches at them and see what we could get."
Perhaps Scott Hamilton meant to say Althoff Catholic was the best offensive team he has coached against in his career. It is hard to believe he meant the best team overall when Tolono Unity set several team records against the Althoff defense.Here is an acticle and some points from it:The Sentinel
The Sentinel is an online newspaper serving Champaign, Urbana, Ogden, Philo, Royal, St. Joseph, and Tolono with local sports, features, and news.
Unity head football coach Scott Hamilton said Althoff Catholic (4-0) was the best team he has coached against in his career.
Unity quarterback Dane Eisenmenger finished with a career and program best of 543 yards. Eisenmenger completed 27 of his 42 passes against the Crusaders. Receiver Tre Hoggard amassed a program-best 266 receiving yards, breaking a 34-year-old record.
Unity's offense also reset the mark for the most yards in a game from 639 yards to 666 yards, of which 543 were produced by their stable of seven sticky-fingered receivers.
To date, Friday night's game was the highest-scoring game ever played at Hicks Field.
Althoff was led in scoring by 5-foot-11, 188-pound Oregon commit Dierre Hill Jr. Hill ran for 255 yards and caught four passes for 48 yards. The senior scored five touchdowns, the last on a nine-yard pass to set up the Crusaders' game-winning two-point conversion with seven seconds left in the non-conference contest.
Hamilton told the team after the game that, having coached over 400 games, there has only been a handful in which he thought every player on the field would have to play at their absolute best to even have a chance of winning.
"I give a lot of credit to our kids. I just don't have enough great things to say about our kids, our coaches, our plan, and how the kids executed. We just wanted to keep throwing punches at them and see what we could get."
Belleville Althoff is certainly a contender and might win the 1A championship this year, but before its fans get too excited they should ask themselves a few questions.
1.) When did Althoff last win a state championship in football? If it has ever happened, I'm pretty sure it was more than 25 years ago.
2.) How many points did they beat Tolono Unity by? The answer is 1.
3.) What is Tolono Unity's current record? The answer is 2-3. Yes, that means two other teams this year have already beaten Tolono by more points than Althoff beat them by. There is probably a 1/3 chance Tolono will not even qualify for the playoffs this year. And yet, the team that beat him by 1 point is "the best team he has coached against in his career"?
Belleville Althoff is fortunate that the 1A field does not appear to be very deep this year, and even Lena-Winslow at the top does not appear to be as dominant as some of their past championship teams. Althoff's chances might be as high as 30%, but with Dierre Hill being a senior, it has to be this year.
P.S. I have now done the research to answer the first question. The last of Althoff's three state football championships occurred in 1990; 34 years ago.
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None of that is disputable, but it could be a case of a bad game by kids reading their own headlines after having beat and 8A team the week before. And their D looked good that evening.
Im rooting for althoff to win state this year. But i feel like the only thing holding them back is coaching. With that roster, and playing 1a they should be favorites. But giving up 50 pts and 600+ yards to TU doesnt make me confident they can get it done.
I dont follow Tolono, but i cant imagine they have faced teams with 3 P5 dudes. So, its not a completely ridiculous claim by their HC.
When you consider they have full platoons aside from CJ - the D1 DB/WR - allowing Dierre to concentrate on O and Dowell on the DLine, they have to be up there.
When this board discussed what positions you'd want a 5star to be, DL and RB were the spots. Dierre showed out that game and Dowell got sacks - it was just YAK away from Charleston that KILLED the Crusaders that night. They drove up that afternoon after a big city game - first in 29 years - against an 8A team. I think they were looking past TU a bit.
When this board discussed what positions you'd want a 5star to be, DL and RB were the spots. Dierre showed out that game and Dowell got sacks - it was just YAK away from Charleston that KILLED the Crusaders that night. They drove up that afternoon after a big city game - first in 29 years - against an 8A team. I think they were looking past TU a bit.
I don't know, the coach must have a short memory. In 2021 he took a (13-0) Tolono Unity team to the championship game of 3A..... where they lost 35-7 to unbeaten Byron.
As far as his team, (13-0) sounds better than (2-3). As far as an opponent, a 28-point loss sounds worse than a 1-point loss. I am going to guess that the 2021 3A state championship team of Byron was better than this year's 1A Belleville Althoff team.
Nonetheless, the coach would not be the first person to engage in a little bit of exaggeration. The fact remains that Belleville Althoff has a very good team this year.
This same Althoff team lost in the quarters of 1a last year. There is no need to make excuses about the outcome and accept there is work needed defensively to be successful later in the year.
Remember, it is never the same team. This is a new year. Applies to East Side, applies to Althoff, applies to all schools.
There is a difference between “best team” and “team with best next level talent”
If it’s the latter, then Hamilton quote is probably correct.
Based on the Unity score, Althoff has some work to do on the defensive side, but they are still clearly one of the favorites to win 1A and possibly 2A if they get the bump up.
If it’s the latter, then Hamilton quote is probably correct.
Based on the Unity score, Althoff has some work to do on the defensive side, but they are still clearly one of the favorites to win 1A and possibly 2A if they get the bump up.
My point is they kicked butt last year but had a few flaws that showed up at the wrong time for them. Based on that game defense is an issue that may need to be addressed. No class is a cake walk in Illinois. Beating east shouldn’t equate to giving up 50 points
I second this defense is a problem right now plenty of time to fix it.
