GREAT START, BUT LONG NIGHT FOR PANTHERS

Washington football coach Darrell Crouch felt his team lost twice Saturday night at chilly Peoria Stadium. Peoria High ran past the Panthers 68-46 in a wild Class 5A quarterfinal game, ending Washington's seven-game winning streak and propelling the Lions (11-1) into the state semifinals for the second straight year. "I thought before this game that the winner will be playing for a state championship in two weeks," Crouch said. Peoria High will play at Morris (10-2) at 3 p.m. Saturday in the semifinals. Crouch thinks Peoria High has too much speed for Morris. He also is certain his team (9-3) could have won a rematch after Morris beat Washington 20-3 in Week 2. "Caleb (sophomore quarterback Caleb Fisher) has several more games under his belt and our defense is much better than it was then," he said. Peoria High's up-tempo, no-huddle offense, led by multi-dimensional quarterback Coran Taylor, dismantled Washington's defense. It wasn't the first time the Lions did that this season. They've scored at least 68 points in seven of their 12 games including an all-class playoff record 96 points against Decatur Eisenhower in the second round. Taylor rushed for 280 yards on 16 carries and threw for 140 yards on 12-for-15 passing for a whopping total of 420 yards against Washington. He ran for five touchdowns and threw a pair of touchdown passes to Aaron Jowers. Washington devoted its defensive efforts to stopping running backs Geno Hess and Jaleen James, which gave Taylor many opportunities to show off his speed and great passing arm. "We tried to take advantage of what they (Washington) gave us. They put seven in the box against our five offensive lineman and Coran did a great job finding our open guys or running the ball himself," said Peoria High coach Tim Thornton. Peoria High piled up 567 total yards including 427 on the ground. The game couldn't have gotten off to a better start for Washington, which led 13-0 with 9:51 left in the first quarter. Peoria High muffed two kickoffs, saddling the Lions with poor field position. A 25-yard punt and a fumble that was scooped up by Washington's Jacob Smith and advanced 12 yards led to the Panthers' scores. Fisher raced 22 yards for a TD on Washington's second play of the game and Josh Schellenberg ran 5 yards for a TD one play after Smith's fumble recovery. Peoria High responded with a 26-yard touchdown pass from Taylor to Jowers but Washington scored on a 62-yard pass from Fisher to Garrett Frank and a two-point conversion pass from Fisher to Frank to make it 21-7. Things began going downhill for the Panthers from there as they got into a high-scoring game they were trying to avoid. An 83-yard interception return for a touchdown by Jowers in the first quarter hurt and a perfectly thrown 67-yard TD pass from Taylor to Jowers with four seconds left in the first half was a crusher, giving Peoria High a 40-34 lead at halftime. The Taylor-to-Jowers TD pass late in the first half came on the Lions' first play after Washington knotted the score at 34-34 on a 5-yard run by Schellenberg following a 49-yard pass from Fisher to Frank. "I couldn't be more proud of our kids for the way they responded to what happened to them at the beginning of the game," Thornton said. "We talked before the game about taking things one play at a time. What they did couldn't have been more of an embodiment of that thought." It was all Peoria High in the second half as the Lions outscored Washington 28-12 including 15-0 in the third quarter. Yes, there was a shutout quarter in a game with 114 total points. "We made too many mistakes and gave up too many big plays in the game," Crouch said. "But our young guys learned a lot and our seniors left a great legacy of winning back-to-back Mid-Illini Conference championships. "I told our guys after the game to remember what (President Obama) said before the (presidential election)," he said. "The sun will still come up tomorrow." Fisher was 9-of-20 through the air for 182 yards and two touchdowns and he ran for a score, but he was intercepted three times. Frank had two catches for 101 yards. Schellenberg (34 carries, 147 yards) ran for three touchdowns. Washington's Jason Diederich (nine carries, 23 yards) also had a TD run.

GREAT START, BUT LONG NIGHT FOR PANTHERS

Photo Credit: Ron Johnson

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