Two common denominators have happened during all three losses this season for the St. Joseph-Ogden football team.
The Spartans are losing to good teams in the Illini Prairie Conference. That’s the first one. Bloomington Central Catholic is undefeated at 7-0. Unity has already clinched a playoff berth and has a 6-1 record, with its lone loss to BCC. Monticello is 5-2, with both of its losses to BCC and Unity.
The second one involves the Spartans’ performance during the second half in those three losses. Mainly the fact SJO has not scored a single point after halftime against BCC, Unity and Monticello, with those three teams outscoring the Spartans 76-0 in the second half.
The same trend happened last Friday night for SJO in its 67-28 road loss against BCC at Bill Hundman Memorial Field in Bloomington. The Spartans (4-3, 4-3 Illini Prairie) only trailed 31-28 at halftime against the Saints before BCC pulled away in convincing fashion.
“I liked our effort for the game,” SJO coach Shawn Skinner said. “We were competing until the end, and we have said repeatedly to this team, ‘All we ask is for you to play hard.’ We did a much better job of that against BCC. We didn’t get the end result, but the players were much more locked in and together. We showed that we can play a very good two quarters of football. We need to put four good quarters together to beat a quality opponent.”
SJO will try to reverse that trend this Friday night, needing at least one win in its one of its final two games to become eligible for the playoffs. The Spartans will travel to play state-ranked and undefeated Seneca (7-0) at 7 p.m. Friday in SJO’s only nonconference game this season.
Terry Maxwell, a 1998 SJO graduate who was a Spartans’ captain and starting offensive lineman on the 1997 SJO team that finished second in state in Class 2A, is Seneca’s coach. Maxwell is in his fifth season leading the Irish and has compiled a 41-9 record at Seneca, making three straight playoff appearances in 2A.
“They don’t do anything fancy,” Skinner said of Seneca’s run-first offensive approach. “They line up and go straight at you. They want to make it a physical game and see how you respond. They block hard and run hard.”
SJO’s offense kept pace with BCC in the first half last Friday night. Senior quarterback Kodey McKinney completed 20 of 28 passes for 270 yards, but threw two interceptions. He also added 52 rushing yards on nine carries and three touchdowns. Fellow senior Wyatt Wertz returned from an arm injury he sustained in Week 2 against Paxton-Buckley-Loda and contributed 84 rushing yards on 11 carries and one touchdown. Seniors Tim Blackburn-Kelley (eight catches for 101 yards) and Ryker Lockhart (six catches for 91 yards) helped the Spartans move the ball against the Saints.
“We simply played one of our best halves of offense in the first half,” Skinner said. “The offensive line was great in both run and pass blocking. Kodey was in rhythm, and the skill guys were making plays.”
But BCC took advantage of several defensive mistakes by SJO in the second half to run away with the win.
“Defensive-wise, we need to tackle better,” Skinner said. “It sounds like a simple solution, but we had opportunities to make the finishing play, and we didn’t do it enough times. We have to make those one-on-one tackles when we get the opportunity. When we do that, our defensive issues will be rectified.”
SJO still has a chance to make the playoffs for the 35th time in program history. Beat Seneca and a playoff-eligible fifth win happens. Beat both Seneca and Pontiac (2-5), who SJO hosts on Oct. 24 at Dick Duval field in St. Joseph for its final regular-season game, and a playoff berth is secured with six wins.
The task to end a two-game losing streak and start building some positive momentum ahead of the playoffs starts Friday for SJO in Seneca.
“Seneca will be another big challenge for us,” Skinner said, “but a great opportunity as well.”
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