Batavia bounces back with fast start in win over St. Charles East
Slow starts have hampered Batavia’s football team in two of the past three weeks against St. Charles North and Geneva.
That wasn’t the case against St. Charles East Friday night.
Junior quarterback Bodi Anderson raced around the left side for an 80-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage just 12 seconds into the game, igniting an offensive barrage that culminated in the Bulldogs’ 56-7 DuKane Conference victory at Norris Stadium in St. Charles.
“It felt pretty great to score on the first play,” said Anderson, who also tossed first-half touchdown passes to Isaiah Brown (10 yards) and Brett Berggren (24 yards). “I saw daylight and thought go, and it turned out to be a touchdown.”
After the defense, fueled by linebacker Jake Feller and linemen Gavin Pecor and Xavier Blanquel, forced a 3-and-out series, the Bulldogs capped a 6-play, 53-yard drive with Anderson’s TD pass to Brown for a 14-0 lead.
“The fast start was important,” said Bulldogs coach Dennis Piron, whose team improved to 6-1 overall, 4-1 in conference, and secured a state playoff berth for the 14th consecutive season (not including COVID-shortened 2020).
“Bodi is a pretty good runner. We were hopeful we could click with him right away. That was a nice way to start the game.”
Ahead 28-0 at halftime, the Bulldogs put the game away with 3 more touchdowns in the third quarter, including a 1-yard run by Nathan Whitwell (9 carries, 53 yards, 2 TDs) and a 15-yard run from Greyson Kelly (5 carries, 71 yards).
After having their 10-game DuKane Conference winning streak snapped by Geneva last weekend, the Bulldogs regrouped and took out their frustrations on the Saints (2-5, 2-3).
“We had to forget about it,” Piron said of the loss to Geneva. “We wanted to come out and be diverse. We wanted to get lots of guys touchdowns — and we did. We worked hard this week on making sure our complementary game was there, and to get after it defensively.
“I think (St. Charles) East is down a little bit right now with some guys injured. I’ve got eight or nine guys hurt, so others have to step up and play. You must keep going.”
Playing without injured quarterback JT Padron and tailback Xander Salazar, the Saints also lost the services of reserve quarterback Peyton Faidley with an injury late in the third quarter.
Pressed into action behind center, starting defensive back Sean Keegan tallied the Saints’ lone touchdown on a 72-yard run midway through the fourth quarter.
“It’s tough with some of the injuries that we have,” said Saints coach Nolan Possley. “Our guys fight. It’s awesome to have guys like Sean Keegan. We had some open gyms where we would throw the ball around a little bit, so we’ve seen him at quarterback before.
“That was pretty cool to see.”