WRMJ Sports
WRMJ Sportsline: Week 2 High School Football Recap
This is Sportsline on W.R.M.J. Who breaks free? He's inside the 20, the 10, the 5. A weekly in-depth look at the local high school sports scene. Touchdown, Lissert County. Touchdown, Golden Eagles. Sportsline has brought you by your local country financial representatives, Tracy Bigum, Jason Potter, and Brent Bigum. Offering insurance for your life, health, home, auto, farm, or business. Get a watch of three at the gun. No good, and the Rockets have won the game. The Rockets head back to state. By 6-1-4-0 running gales for your spot for custom-fitted running and walking shoes, haidooed shoes, and perk and stock sandals, plus red wing and wolverine work boots. A three at the gun is no good, and this game is over! Tigers have won! They're gonna celebrate! Purple and gold, converging! On the gunboy's Canadian board! Unbelievable! And by Diamond Ag, local Ag retail supplier built from your local specifications with locations in Alito, Alexis, and Knoxville. She throws the first three in a row from Oak Ridge. The Rockets have won three state titles in a row and softball. Now from the WRMP studios in downtown Lito, here's Jim Taylor and Ty Taylor with Sportsline. It is the W.I.M. Chase Sportsline on a Saturday morning, a tradition that began back in 1979. I'm Jim Taylor, Ty Taylor, alongside some quality match-ups so last night in the area. Of course, a battle of two top five teams. Princeton three in three A. Rock Ridge three in two A. And really the game kind of lived up to its expectations of heart in a game. The Rockets, the difference, the kicking game last night is Princeton scored nine points with their kicker Ian Morris, who's an offensive lineman and a linebacker who wears Jersey 52. But in the second half, he made a field goal of 37 yards and a field goal of 29 yards in Rock Ridge. Unfortunately, in the first half, 0-3 on P.A.T.'s. And I say it often, in small school football, when two elite teams play, usually it comes down to maybe special teams. And I saw that last night, but I thought Rock Ridge defensively kind of stood toe-to-toe with Princeton last night. Well, yeah, I mean, I think just looking at the score and obviously I didn't watch the game and haven't seen anything from the game other than the score and just kind of the final statistics. I think losing to Princeton by nine points is a good sign. Like, obviously, you want to win the game and, like you said, Rock Ridge in the first half. I mean, it was 21-18 at halftime and the issue for Rock Ridge was the P.A.T.'s. they were 0-3. Like you said, they missed two kicks and then went for two once and didn't get it. So, I mean, those are three points that Princeton got on the P.A.T.'s and that Rock Ridge didn't. And I know you talk about it there, and I think so too. Special teams are so important and scoring seven or eight instead of six are so important too. Or if you have a kicker, like Princeton clearly does, where you're guaranteed the seven, it's a big difference and if it's iffy, if you get six or seven. So, I think though for Rock Ridge, you know, like you said toe to toe with Princeton, I think it's a good sign. You want to win the game, of course, but Princeton's the best team on Rock Ridge's regular season schedule without a doubt. And they gave them a game and, like you said, I think the game kind of lived up to its billing. I think it's the most anticipated game in the conference all season. Maybe Princeton, Mod in the Throwsville, down the line will have that field too. But, you know, a good game. It's always great when the two, you know, favorites of either side of the division get to play each other. And last night, you know, another really good game between Princeton and Rock Ridge. Well, and it's interesting last night because you look at Rock Ridge, they really won with the exception of the turnover battle. They won the stat column last night. Sixteen first downs to eleven. Now, it was impossible to run the ball against them last night again. And Princeton held Newman to negative rushing yards last week. It was like negative thirty-nine. And the Rockets had to earn every bit of their forty yards of rushing last night, 292 yards passing. But they limited Princeton to eleven first downs. And here's the thing where you really have to tip your cap to Rock Ridge defensively. They lose Ryan lower in the first quarter on a weird play where I thought the ball was a deflection, but he actually caught a ball on a screen as a lineman. And that's where he got hurt. So he got hit at the end of the play. So it's an illegal touching penalty, a loss of down, forcing Rock Ridge to punt. But he was injured on the play kind of the back of his neither, not sure. I think they were getting him examined. So he did not return, so they brought the other die brother in. Twenty-three, I get Tanner in Trevor mixed up. But he came in and played kind of linebacker switching with the Nicholson kid playing the lineman spot. So they lose the top defender in Ryan lower last night. And then he's an offensive lineman, so a two-way starter. But here was Princeton's field position in the second half. And they scored just six points, two field goals. Their own thirty-five, the sixteen of Rock Ridge, the fifteen of Rock Ridge, the forty-four of Rock Ridge, and the forty-eight of Rock Ridge. So they had four of their five possessions in the second half. Well, two of them deep in rocket territory. And Rock Ridge limiting them to just six points in the second half. But, you know, good games, you win and lose by defense. And Princeton did the job in the second half defensively where they shut the Rockets out. As Rock Ridge got on the board right off the bat, Princeton won the toss deferred. Rockets got a big kick off return from land and Wheatley then Owen Steele at ninety-five, receiving guards in the first half, two receiving touchdowns last night. He gets loose for a forty-yard touchdown with eleven-oh-nine remaining. They missed the P-A-T-6, nothing but Princeton got it rolling really on their first three possessions where Ace Christensen gets a four-yard touchdown run that was a sixty-seven-yard drive. They stop Rock Ridge on the next offensive series. March at seventy-one yards for a twenty-two-yard touchdown run from Ace Christensen. And then the biggest play of the game was fourteen-six kind of midway through the second quarter. And Princeton had it fourth and four at the thirty-nine of Rock Ridge, and they tried to draw the Rockets off. They call a timeout, they come back, they go for it, they fake the full back and they give it to the Etheridge Kid and he goes untouched for thirty-nine yards. And that was the biggest play of the game, giving them a twenty-one six-lead Rockets though, able to put a drive together right before half. Colin Schweigen, a nine-yard touchdown pass to Steele, making it a twenty-one twelve-game P-A-T no good. And then the Rockets finally get a defensive stop in that second quarter and march the ball with seventeen seconds remaining in a one-yard slant, a reception for land in Wheatley, twenty-one eighteen at half time. And then it was just a defensive battle in the second half. I've got to give Princeton really defensively a solid effort, didn't allow Rock Ridge to get in the end zone in the second half, forced a couple to turn over us and just they tackle man, it's a hard-ending game and Rock Ridge defensively played stout last night too. Well I think too you've mentioned if there like, or you know, any through this scoring summary in the stats, I think we knew coming into the season that Rock Ridge's skilled position guys are really good and kind of match up with anybody and last night they clearly matched up with Princeton and they were able to have success, you went through the total yardage and everything. But for the Rockets, I think the big issue now is you mentioned the injury to Ryan Lower and you really can't understate how important he is to them, especially defensively and hopefully it's not like a long-term thing but you don't ever like to hear knee injury obviously and now with him playing both ways, I mean that's something before both this freshman and sophomore, he just played linebacker this year now, he's an offensive lineman too, so hopefully he's alright because that's a big loss if he is out for a while because he especially defensively is so good, so hopefully he's okay. So they bring in Isaac Bolasov more to play his offensive line spot and Coach Craves will talk about this in the interview this morning and then the die kid comes in and plays the line back, I think they moved him actually to kind of modify their defensive line last night, but I, you know, looking at the stats and I didn't really mention this at the end of the broadcast last night, but I think Schwigan hit five different receivers last week, last night eight different kids from Rockridge caught a pass. So Lehman's had two receptions, Landon Wheatley, four receptions, Liam Steele two receptions, Owen Steele, six catches for that, I tell you Princeton really did a number on him in the second half because he got loose a couple times in the first half, I think five of his catches in the first half finish with six for 105. Agent zero had two catches for 16 yards, everybody's like who's agent zero, something sour, Jacob Firemuth three receptions out of the backfield for 30, and die a catch for seven yards and little Wheatley chase with a catch for nine yards. But a good game, I'd like to see him play again, but you know Rockridge will be two way Princeton will be three, but we talked about it on the pregame yesterday and man I tell you, Coach Pearson, great program established there, and you look at their last five trips to the postseason and they've played very competitive games against-- >> Four quarter final trips and one semi final trip I believe. >> And the three opponents that have knocked them out are the elite three A teams in the state, twice to Byron, twice to IC Catholic, and once to Montini, those are the animals you're playing in three A postseason and they hung toe to toe with those teams. And I'm bummed, I think Coach Pearson deserves a trophy, but when you run into that type of, you know, those type of opponents, you know, there's a big difference between two A and three A when you get to those Tokyo schools like that. >> I know a couple years ago, like when Tegan Davis was a senior who's now at Iowa, they took IC Catholic to overtime and fell short, but that felt like if they could have got past that hurdle that year, they might have been able to win the state title. But like you said, I mean, the fact is that, like, especially in the North of three A is just a monster. And, you know, I mean, if you keep winning and you keep winning, you're going to play Byron or Montini. Or I think IC Catholic is up to four A this year, but I mean, there are some really established, like, legendary programs that they run into in the postseason. So you think seeing them in person where they, as advertised, you think as good as you thought they do? >> I think defensively very good. I mean, they're front three and they're lying back in court. They don't miss tackles. So it's tough to run the ball against them. It'll be interesting to see if somebody in the league, I mean, let's face it, they, you know, a vaunted program like Newman held them to negative rushing yards. And then the Rockets were limited to 40 yards of rushing last night. And then I was going to ask you a question, too. So I'm going by the NUIC rankings. Is AP going to do rankings this year now? >> They are next week is going to be the first one. There's been like, and there's been some software issue, so they haven't been able to. >> Because I was Google searching this week, Associated Press, your little high school football rankings. Are you voting a pollster on that? >> I am. I submitted my ballot. And then like, after I did it, like 15 minutes later. So it's due on Wednesday at two as you send it in. And there's like a program you do it through, you have to log in and everything. It's like a really kind of convoluted process that takes forever to do. It takes forever to do forever. So I did it because I think that it's important to do that stuff. And it's good to cover this cover statewide stuff. So I did it. And I'm like, okay, that took a long time in my Wednesday morning. And then not 15 minutes later, the guy sends out an email. He's like, hey, well, previously in the week, he said, you know, we haven't figured out. We're going to have one out this week. Because last week they said, don't vote because we're not going to have it. Well, then 15 minutes after I do all that. And he says, well, we're not going to be able to do it again this week. And I'm like, boy, I wish you would have sent that like two hours earlier. So next week there should be one unless they're still locked out of it. So that's a behind the scenes look at that process. And I tell you, that's one of the things that we have taken for granted for so many years, in my opinion, because, you know, we've lost a lot of the daily newspaper coverage where you had the true beat writers out there. Did you get a chance to see Kevin Hieronymus last night at all? He said he was going to be there. I forgot to give you a heads up. I did not. I went up to the booth early to give Coach Cook his binoculars that he forgot at the Charard game last week. So he actually, Coach Cook has two sets of binoculars because he didn't think I was going to bring his binoculars. So he had two sets. So I did not see him, but I saw some of the social media posts from Kevin Hieronymus. And then, you know, just kind of getting back to, when we talk about like daily coverage, that I'm, you know, I'm big into local journalism. And one of the things I used to love and you don't see it as much anymore is, you know, how the top ten fared. So each Saturday morning you could go to the newspaper and look at the AP rankings, and then they always have, here's how the top ten teams did last night. Murrell, Forsyth, Beeth, Williamsville, whatever, whoever they played to kind of chart that and follow that. Because by the way, I saw him last night and it's only because of, you know, Brad Dixon's local ties here in, you know, grew up in New Boston. His parents live in Alito. Because I saw last night they had a barn burner of a game where they lost the defending state champs in 1A, Camp Point Central. They lost last night to Hardin Calhoun, 14 to 13. It sounded like a real slobber knocker of a game. And the one thing that was interesting for me is that I guess that place where they played in Hardin, Illinois is like parallel or contiguous to the Calhoun County Fair, which was going on last night. Oh my gosh. So there was these issues with ingress and egress with parking and all that. And I want to talk to somebody about that and just see what that environment is like. Because I think that'd be pretty cool where there's a county fair going on and a showdown high school football game in the western Illinois Valley conference. But anyway, as I was talking about, you know, kind of local coverage is important to me. And there's still people that do it. I know, you know, view from the West and you I see that there are great sites to follow. All right. I think we segue here and talk about the Golden Eagles. I would say, you know, credit to the kids last night where they were down 14 nothing after giving up 50 last week. Because when I saw that score, I'm like, man, 14, that's not a good sign right off the bat. But they could credit them, man, to battle back and win that game. And I think, you know, big as they call it a momentum switcher, I think, you know, that was great to see from a Mercer County standpoint them, you know, kind of get up off the bottom of the pile and say, hey, we've got to come back and write the ship here in week two. And that's what they did, you know, they were trailing 14 nothing at the end of the first quarter. So if you go back to the third quarter and the fourth quarter last week and then the first quarter last night over three quarters, they had been out scored 58 to six. And, you know, and it didn't, it didn't go very well in the first quarter. You know, Sherrod forced a turnover. They went on to, well, I scored a touchdown drive and then Mercer County had a punt go off the side of their foot where it was like fourth and nine and that ball didn't even get to the first down marker and set up Sherrod in a short field. I think that was a drive they ended up scoring on. And then later in the first quarter, Mercer County fumbled at like their own 30. And it set up a short touchdown one play later. So it was 14 nothing at the end of the first. And at that point, I was thinking, you know, this could get out of hand. But luckily, you know, Mercer County for them was able to kind of turn things around. They tied it in the final minute of the first half after forcing a Sherrod turnover. And I think the big play in the game last night, Mercer County made it 14-6 and was driving late in the first half. And it was like third and two or third and three. And the snap went over the quarterback's head, John Baldwin's and Sherrod recovered it. So now Sherrod had it with like two minutes left around midfield trying to go back up two scores. And a couple of plays later, they got a strip sack on Carter Brown, got the ball back, and then were able to go down and score with under a minute to play in the half to tie the game. And at that point, the momentum had completely swung. I mean, it was all Mercer County. And then in the second half, they outscored him 20-0 to end up winning 34-14. And really, it was kind of the opposite of what happened last week in Mercer County's game, where Sherrod is the team that is super undermanned right now with all the injuries they're dealing with. And a lot of kids play both ways. Or even by about midway through the second quarter, you could tell that their kids were kind of starting to run out of gas. And it was really limping to the finish line for them in terms of energy. They didn't really suffer any other injuries last night, but they're playing with just such a shorthand roster that it's hard to play for full quarters. It was a pretty physical game last night, too. So I do think that they played well. I mean, early on, especially, they kind of took it to Mercer County right away. And the Golden Eagles were able to adjust, but like you said, a very good sign, because for Mercer County, especially with the schedule they have, you know, still to play this season. And Tanner said this before the game, too. He said, you know, he felt like this is a game in terms of like postseason hopes. We have to win this game. And after trailing 14-0 early after the, you know, way the game went last week, it could have been easy for those kids and say, okay, this is not going well and kind of pack it in, but credit them, they didn't do that. Kept playing hard, ended up winning 34-14. So a big win for the Golden Eagles, and it sets up a big clash with them with Oriene next week. They both, their common opponent is Monmouth Roseville, and kind of the same thing happened to Oriene last night, too, which we'll get into in a moment. But a big win for Mercer County and for Sherard, it just is unfortunate because when you look at them, I mean, they got Brinston next week. Right. And we talk about this all the time with them. You know, it's so hard to turn around football programs and really get over the hump. And for Sherard, it feels like every year, every year, they have just the worst schedule. You know, I mean, it is just a killer every year. And for them, and we talked about this with Riverdale winning last week, like you're a victim of kind of where you play teams in terms of like the vibes and how things can go in the year. And for them, I mean, they're the only team in the conference that in the first three weeks, they play both Rock Ridge and Princeton, right? And that is just, it's hard because you know that to even compete with either Rock Ridge or Princeton, like for Sherard with what they have right now in terms of available bodies, they have to play like a perfect game to even hope to compete and be in the game, right? Because of just the overwhelming numbers that both Rock Ridge and Princeton have over them. So it'll be tough for them next week for sure, but then if you look at weeks four and five, they have Hall and Mendota, which are definitely winnable. So if you can get through five weeks at two and three, you feel okay. But, you know, next week will be tough for them for sure. They offensively looked really good early. I mean, Carter Brown, when you give him time, he can do a lot of things, whether running or passing. Garrett Woodward is a great player, I think, on both sides of the ball for them. He looked good last night. I like this kind of speed option play. They ran it a couple of times. It worked pretty well. But yeah, by the time the second half came, like when they tried to pass, I mean, Brown had no time to throw it. And when they tried to run, they just weren't able to, you know, finish blocks. So, and they're super young up front right now too. But, you know, it's hard, like I said earlier, hard for them to play for full four quarters right now. But I do think they're a couple of nice pieces. Lane Lux more had a nice run that got called back. He got down to the three yard line. I was standing by somebody on the Mercer kind of side and they gave it to him on like a... get sweep and he cut up and he had room to run. I'm like, "Oh, go, Lane." And he was like, "Are you rooting for Sharada?" I was like, "No, I just... He's my relative." That's painful, man. That's Lane, man. I'm rooting for Lane because of Grandma Kitty. So he got called back until he got down to the three. But he touched the ball a few times last night. He plays on defense. Lane Lux more a family member of mine. Nobody cares about that though, I'm sure. Well, and Ryan Lower's a fan. And Ryan Lower, hopefully he's okay. Yeah, nobody in our family tackles like Ryan Lower. Not even Pat Lower tackled like Ryan Lower. So you said though, sound to me like the big play of that game is the Mercer County defense forcing that strip sack. How much time was left in the second quarter? And what was the deal with it? There's probably a little under two minutes. I don't remember exactly. They got it probably around the 40 yard line of their own, correct? And I think they win about 60 yards in 90 or so seconds probably. I might be off a little bit on the yardage in the time, but it was about that. Yeah, that was the big turning point of the game. If Sharada can get to the locker room up 14-6 instead, it's a 14-14 game. But again, credit Mercer County battling back from that 14-0 deficit. And then their defense was pretty stout then for the rest of the game, not allowing any second-and-a-half points. Yep, and it'll be, the three teams they've played are all very different like stylistically. I do too. And then the one they're getting ready to prepare for an Orient because Orient is going to throw the ball a ton next week. Everybody knows that. So Mercer County's secondary, I mean, really hasn't been tested a lot. I guess. I mean, Sharada throws a decent amount, but they don't throw to the volume that Orient does, obviously. So it'll be interesting to see kind of the match up there with Mercer County and Orient next week. And again, much like last night with Merko and Sharada, I think next week with Mercer County and Orient. It's kind of the same story where it's two teams that I think are very evenly matched going in that both probably need to win that game. I mean, well, and I was thinking, well, before we talk a little bit about Orient, give me what was a crowd like last night. It was good on Mercer County side. I would say Sharada was a little disappointing. I mean, if they had everybody sitting in the visiting stands, they would have been completely full. They had people kind of down the line, but I don't think it was as big as people were expecting, but it was still bigger than, you know, the old conference road crowds. Well, okay, my other question, we kind of buried the lead. What would you think of kind of the, you know, John and Chuck, you got to be behind the scenes there and work with them? And Coach Breton, yeah, of course. There was great pictures. There are some great pictures on our social media. Yeah, Rusty Dunne was taking those. And then I thought Kia Windsor on her page had a great picture of John Chuck and Coach Breton, just kind of the angle of it. And to me, you know, I'm always careful with what I say, but I always tell people that's my double-deworm J. It is. Because that's where I came in. I came in here in 1990, and that's the soundtrack of double-deworm J for me, John and Chuck, man. It's like, that's double-deworm J. You tell me what double-deworm J is. It's Friday night, touchdown Alito, touchdown green dragons. Par excellence, broadcasting excitement, enthusiasm, and just a wild man up in the booth with Chuck Claus. Yeah, it was awesome. It was fun hearing them again, you know, and getting to be a part of it in a small role. Obviously, for me last night, it was really cool. Just kind of growing up around John, obviously, and Chuck and Coach Breton. I mean, they're all three guys I really, I mean, they're fun to talk to anyway. I mean, I wish I could have just hung out with them for four hours, you know. But, yeah, it was cool, and it's sad that John isn't going to be doing it anymore, or obviously Chuck and Coach Breton too. But, I don't know, like you said, it just sounds, it sounds right, I think. I mean, it just sounds right. It, like I remember when John did that Merko Rock Ridge regional title game of basketball in the winter. It just sounds right, you know. I mean, he's really good, and it's just, he, like you said, it is the station. That's what it sounds like, and it's weird that he's not doing Mercer County football anymore. But last night, it was awesome getting to hear him do it one more time. And I got to hear, and I'm going to listen to it back, the broadcast, you know, here later today. But I did get to hear kind of the sign off of him and kind of Chuck and Bill talking, and I just thought it was kind of great how he threw out some of the different places, and the different venues he's had to broadcast. And I remember when I first got into this business, by the way, Mark Freeman drove by, and there's John Rickie. John Rickie said, "Well, I was talking to John Rickie a little bit last night. He was down on the sideline, watching the Eagles." So, what was I saying? So, I'll hear about John Hocha. This is the ultimate respect. I remember when I first came to this radio station in 1990, in the fall, and he took me to the very first game I was going to help him broadcast. And you know who was playing, Hamilton and Wesmer. That's like Hamilton's part of West Hancock. Was it at Hamilton? It was in Joy. Yeah, I had to go there last year. That sucked going there. It was the old press box, the old press box at Joy, which is on the visitor's side. Oh boy. And no basically hashes on the field and no numbers. And I'm like, "How?" That's a nightmare. And then you're basically about maybe 10 feet in the air, 15 feet. And I'm like, "How can that guy call the ball?" And I was just so impressed with that. And then, this wasn't too long ago, and it was Mercer County. And I think Coach Hofer was the head coach then. They were playing Anawon Weathersfield. And the game was an Anawon. And he had to do the game from an auction truck, like on the sideline. I remember a picture of that. Like at the 30. And Chuck was still doing game. Ed Power in there? Yeah, and they still are able to call the game at a high level. And that's just like the ultimate. And then he was given some of the other examples. I think he said something about having to broadcast and harden the one year early in his career. And he's like, "Second row of the boys." I'm just like, "That's a nightmare." That's a nightmare, too. Oh my gosh. Type of stuff. But anyway, it was nice to hear that broadcast. I hope people enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. I did the school district. Did they pay tribute to him? They did. They had a nice announcement in between the first and second quarter for John. They ever going to name the press box in his honor. They should. I mean, come on, man. But there was also a very nice tribute to Terry Bueley last night, too. Who, of course, we talked about on our season preview. Great. That's the way. The class moved by the district a few weeks ago. They had his initials at the 50-yard line. He obviously took great care of George Pratt Memorial Field for many, many years. And they did a nice kind of tribute announcement to him, too, before the game started, which was awesome. And the field looks great. I know they had a crew of like 15 people do it, which does a lot about what Bueley did. He did that all by himself. So it's a really sad loss like we touched on a few weeks ago. And it was nice. They were able to honor, obviously, Terry. And then John, too. John, obviously. I mean, 44 years of doing it. You know, weekend and week out. No one has been around. I think that truly no one is more synonymous with the Alito/Mercy County Football Program than John Hoshite. He's been there the longest. He's been around at the longest. Been involved the longest of anybody. He's the soundtrack of it, man. He's the soundtrack. It's the one with six state titles. He's been on the call for all six of them. So it is weird that he's not going to be around anymore, but it was nice. They honored John with that, you know, making announcement for him. And it was cool, you know, with it being charade to a local school that John's covered for a long time as well. Well, and when you mentioned on the social media about the first time that charade played at Pratt was it since 2004? Yep. The last time they played was '05, but that was at charade. But the last game at Pratt was the two-day game. Yep. And those were such... And I thought about that when Coach Elder was the head coach for eight years at charade. And Cully Walter was here at Alito. Those were such great games over the eight years those two teams played. We'll get to the Ori and Momma Throwser game in a moment. But now that game in 2004, when it was like the mud game where it was two days, Brian Adams played that game, right? There's the great picture on social media of him. Yeah. Because he was there last night. Obviously, he coached at Mercer County for a few years in assistant, was the head coach at Schrod for a while, and is over there as they're, like, ranking edition guy now. So, like, for the whole second half, I was talking to him and Coach Murray were down there, who were both coaches at Mercer County when I was in school. Oh, that was funny. That time just flew by, man. There were a lot of funny things being said. It was down in the corner near one of the end zones. It was great talking to them, but yeah. Well, and just, you know, again, like I said, what you mentioned about Terry Buelly, you know, takes 15 people or whatever now to do that job. And that, you know, this type of, the work he's done for the school district, and the initials they put on the field, I thought that was awesome. I know it meant a lot to the family too for Terry. You know, just, there is one more thing about the announcement that was hilarious. So, Terry Tracy, obviously, does the PA and did it. And he, in one of the things he said, he, like, in the read he did, he said, "Offly, awfully good." Which was awesome. That was so funny. Amazing. That's like the Terry Buelly is an awfully, awfully good. You know, what he would always refer to that. Oh, I love that, man. I can just hear him say that. When he would talk about, well, let's say, you know, the heart of Illinois Conference, because he had, I think, a son-in-law was at Fieldcrust in Menunk, and he would tell us about, you know, give me a team from the heart of Illinois Conference, like, Deer Creek, Mackinac. Right. They're awfully, awfully good, right? He would say, he would say stuff like that. Oh, that's great. Terry Tracy. Yeah, it was really funny. It made me laugh. I don't know how many, I mean, I'm sure if you've ever talked to Terry, he's probably said that crazy, you know. But, yeah, it was funny. But, and like we touched on, it was a nice tribute to him, so. Yeah, well, and like I said, it's nice that those, what we've talked about at Nauseam about, you know, just nice these relationships are back in full-fold and, you know, perfect kind of set up in terms of rivalry games for Mercer County, where you get Mama Throwsville, you get Chirard, and then I think Oryan will be pretty interesting because the last time Oryan and Mercer County played, right? Chip Filler was at the swimming pool at Fenton Park because he couldn't coach because he got ejected from the prior game. So, he was watching the game. I'll never forget like the image of Mike, because Mike Masson had to serve as interim head coach. So, you see coach, you know, Filler up on the hillside, outside of the fence at Fenton Park, you know, trying to look at what's going on. And that was a wild game that day where Oryan scored on a late touchdown. Yeah, but the game's over at Charger Field. And I know, you know, sometimes I think the game means for whatever reason, because of the, you know, that kind of run in the 90s, specifically with the lead on the early 2000s, where they really, you know, made those runs in the playoffs and everybody wanted to beat them when they got their chance at them. And sometimes I think it means a little bit more for the opponent that Mercer County's playing than it does Mercer County in terms of the rivalry. So, I know, you know, for coach Filler, he's going to be pretty stoked. Right, but none of the kids know any of them. Yeah, you're right. And none of the kids care, right? Well, I don't know. I think, I think there's a little bit maybe more to it because the kids know one another from the junior high. No, I agree with you there. But in terms of the tradition, like, you know, I mean, what in Mercer County last 10 years is one like one playoff game, I think. So it's not like there's been like, when these kids have been like able to understand what's been going on, it's like Mercer County hasn't been at power. So it's not like, you know what I mean? I don't think, I think the aspect of the localism as to it, but the tradition, I don't think the kids would have any idea. So that's a good segway though, I guess, worrying last night. Got beat by Monmouth Roseville 60 to 26. Monmouth Roseville 2 for 2 this season has 38 point quarters in both games. They outscored worrying 38-6 in the second quarter. It was 53-12 at halftime. Here are some stats last night. Where was the score at halftime? 53-12. Here are the stats last night, some eye-popping ones. 433 rushing yards from Monmouth Roseville last night on 29 attempts. Wow. And Peyton Thompson, he had eight carries. You want to hear what he did on those eight carries? 222 yards, four touchdowns. That's a pretty good night. He was playing track mad. He's had a couple of pretty good outing so far. Peyton Thompson has for the Titans and they are, I mean, they're very good. And they're huge. And that's what Coach Filler will talk to him later too. And that's what he said. He's like, you know, we have our kids and we can tell them, you know, technique-wise what to do. But, you know, like our sophomores are half the size of these kids. They're trying to block or trying to, you know, get to the ball carrier on. So I knew that would be a terrible matchup for them just because of the lack of size aurean has. And I do think next week though, like we touched on when we were talking about the Merco-Sharrard game. That game with Mercer County and Orient should be very competitive over at that Charger Field. I'm going to get it. Sit next to Tony Styles next week. Well, and I think that's a great environment to watch a game. But now the other stat, zero passing attempts last night, right? For Mameth Roseville. They dropped back to pass once in week one and that's been it. And the other. And got sacked. Well, the other issue here is, you know, not only you look at the outcome each week for Orient, but you look at the injury chart. They get through healthy last night because that's the big issue. We ask Coach Filler that. And he'll answer that. He'll answer that question. How about that? Stick around everybody. Well, because that's going to be a key. Because when most people ask me about Orient or they talk about Orient, you know, one of the common questions is do you think they can get to the finish line with 21 or 22 kids? 24. 24 kids. 24. And that's the other thing I was thinking about last night. You know, and I'd like to ask him how many kids on that team last Friday night in this past last night have played every snap. Yeah. Probably quite a few. And that just, man, that adds up. I mean, especially when you're playing a ground and pound team like Monmouth Roseville, where you have to tackle basically, well, you didn't tackle a lot between the tackles last night because they had big run plays, but I mean, it's that type of bruising type of football. Right. Okay. Rest of the conference last night. We'll talk about that briefly before we get to our four local head coaches this week. Again, Kiwanie beat Riverdale 27, 18. So Riverdale, very competitive. They won last week. They kept it close with Kiwanie. I still think we don't know much about either of those teams yet. I feel like they're still, they're both wild cards in my opinion still. Yeah. That's why I'm looking forward next week. Yeah. To see Riverdale, but I think you have to feel really good about Riverdale is that even if you, I mean, just because you're talking about enrollment, you're playing against Kiwanie and what they've been able to accomplish the last five or six years. They've been a good football team and Riverdale playing a nine point game. 27, 18. Did you know? Did you see what the halftime margin was in that game or do you remember? No, but I'll tell you this about Riverdale. I, I like one time I searched for their, I was looking for one of their scores and I looked, or it was when they were last week because I hadn't seen the final score yet with the Mendota game. So I went on their Facebook page, which I don't follow, mind you, and I looked at it once. And now every time I open Facebook, like their posts pop up on my feed. So I'm like the Riverdale Rams super fan, I guess. But yeah, I mean, they kept it competitive with Kiwanie last night. And then Erie Prophets Town, Crushed Hall, 41-7. I think Erie Prophets Town is good. I think they are good and they could be a problem for teams here locally this year. And in coach, we were leaving the press box last night and coach Graves says, I knew that team, Erie Prophets Town is going to be a team to watch out for. They're good. That Larson kid is a stud. Who they got next week, do you know, remember? They open, I think it's Newman. Okay, that's a, that's an interesting game. And then Newman and Mendota play tonight. I expect you want to hear my pick. You might have, we put them online, I guess, already, but I think Newman will win that game. I think that's a safe bet. Yeah, what about you? Over Mendota. Yeah. It's a sandwich fair this week for RFD Radio Network and I drove through. Mendota. Yeah, I've been there once and it's a beautiful facility though. Beautiful facility. Not a fun drive for Melito. No. We're making that trip in football next year. Got to get out of the conference. No. Yeah, I know. That way we can go to frickin' Cuba instead. But for Mercer County, I think, and or in that game is so big next week. Rock Ridge host or at Riverdale. Rock Ridge, it should, you know, that is a win that Rock Ridge should get, I think. And then Sherard at Princeton is, I mean, to put it lightly is, you know, tough. It's going to be tough for the Tigers. I mean, that's what the numbers issue they're dealing with in terms of... Prince, there's the cream of the crop in the league. They proved it last night and you can't, I mean, they're just impossible. For Sherard, they just got to get through that, you know, and hopefully stay healthy. And then, you know, it's to work in weeks four and five. Those are winnable games. If they can get to two and three, then down the stretch, you know, if you look at their schedule, Riverdale, winnable. I think Keelani, right now, you say winnable. Monameth Roseville will be tough. And then Orrin, they play them week eight. And Orrin, week eight will be a wild card because you just don't know in terms of injuries or what, with how many kids they'll still have out. So, for Sherard, I think there's still a path for them. But, you know, it starts definitely in weeks four and five. Those games against Holland, Mendoza, they need to win. That goes without saying. So, anything else you want to touch on before we get to our coaches? Well, any other, like, if you look at any other area of games. Start County, beat Antle and Wethers. Yeah, that was 14-13. Big win for them, for the Rebels and Coach Nord. McComb beat Knox. I think Knox was a little down from last year. I know the wheels kind of came off for them late in the year last year. Knoxville, Farmington's 2-0. They beat West Hancock. They're like 100 kids out. That's not even an exaggeration. They have 100 kids out for football. And their biggest test will probably be McComb then, I'm assuming. Yeah, I would think so. I don't know. They have to play one non-conference game. I don't know who they have non-conference. So Farmington in the north half is probably going to be a one or two seed then, I think. In 2A or 3A. They're normally on the line, but I think the last few years they're almost dropped. So they should be a 2A school. Yeah, then we'll be up there. I mean, I expect Rock Ridge to go, well, I guess Momma Thrills. They'll be 8-1 or 7-2 probably. Rock Ridge, depending on the Momma Thrills will result, I would think. And I mean, that's kind of maybe unfair to some teams, but I think Rock Ridge is very good. And again, looking at what the playoffs, the potential could be after this thing, we get this season. It's a really stupid thing to do. I don't know why we're doing it. Well, I want to go 8-man quickly, so Ridge would one last night. Yeah, they killed Galmer. Or Crushed, I shouldn't say killed. That's something you shouldn't say about. At Cambridge, at the bowl. And then, can I give my Jason Kirby report? Like Bill Breen's going to that game today. Oh, he is. And that game's not abushable. Yeah, he was telling me that last night. So anyway, so I love... West Central and Abushable. And you can battle them. And you can today. And you can listen to that on WMI. Oh, they're doing it. Awesome. So this is the one thing that I forgot to post on the WMI Facebook page, Sunday 97.7 WMI, W-R-A-M. So I'll be listening to people. He can't say those call letters on WMI. Listen to him. I love to. I hope he's using this game. So anyway, I was going to post on there. Facebook page yesterday, because they run down a list of the games. And it was just an oversight. But it said, because it's a one o'clock kickoff for that game. But it says pregame 1235, kick off seven. It's like it's a Super Bowl pregame for Jason Kirby. He deserves it, man. Yeah, so... You could talk to Kirby for three hours. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we'd be proud if you wanted. So they're trying to get to... That's hilarious. On the season in eight-man football. But again, celebrating a local rate of good to see... Right. Monmouth. Are we... Oh, we care. By the way, good to see WMI doing that game and getting eight-man on the air. Are we doing the Alina tonight or a card? Cardinals. So the Alina... That's a bummer for me, by the way. So the Alina got Kansas tonight. I'll be there. Yeah. We're loading up... So Illinois, real quick. Well, let's talk about this at the end of the show because we got to get to our coaches. One more thing about Sean Temple. We talked about him enough, you know, but he... I love when we do games that he's also at. Like last week, the "Mom of Thrones" game. The thing I like about it is like, you know, when you, like, get done doing a local radio broadcast, you, of course, have to take down all of your equipment, which takes forever to do. And the... It's the lonely... Yeah. And really, it's just me, right? But those weeks, it's also Sean Temple doing the same thing. So normally, like, the 10 to 15 minutes of that is just a hilarious conversation. It's... It's a comedy moment. Some of the funniest things you'll ever hear are during those conversations because it's, you know... And this is... Can I bring this idea up again one more time? Yeah, but hurry because we really... So... And I told you... And he... And he agreed doing this. So I would love where one of these games, maybe you can think about doing it next year, like with "Mom of Thrones" will play as Mercer County. So we do it... Simulcast. No, we do an exchange where, okay, so regular start. First quarter, you know, our regular broadcast team comes on the air. They do the game. And then in the second quarter, we switch. And Sean Temple comes over. He broadcasts on the Mercer County signal. You go over and broadcast on the WRMA. The WRMA signal. I would really love to do that one time because I think... We should do that... We should do that at the... There's such talent with that and such... We should do that at the Macomb Western Holiday Tournament. Yeah. We should do a marathon and see if we both want to quit and get different careers after we do that. So... No. All right. Well, anything else we need to get... The order we're going to hear from our local coaches today is Tanner Matt, like at Mercer County, then Brandon Johnson. And Charade will get the recap from last night's Merco Charade game. Then we'll hear from Coach Filler and the Orient Chargers, who says a couple of really funny things that he does every week. And then Coach Graves to wrap it up as well this week. So we will head to break and come back and start here from our head coaches. It's already 9.45. Where did the time go this morning? By the way, one more thing. That Mercer County Charade game was annoyingly long last night. It got over past 9.30. That's all I'll say. We're going to come back and hear from Coach Matt, like after this on WRMJ. 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Coach Tanner Matlow get into one-on-one. Yeah, it was a good night for us. Started a little slow like you kind of pointed out. But we're able to bounce back, correct some things and be much more efficient moving the ball and get some stuff defensively. So it's a good night for us overall as a team. I thought specialists or special teams played a lot better in this game than they did last week. So it was a good total team effort. Both sides of the ball and special teams kind of had to dig ourselves out of that hole really like you mentioned. That was just a result of a couple of draft passes and getting behind the chains a little bit there offensively. A couple of fun goals. So we just can't beat ourselves there in the first quarter. And then once we got that first quarter out of the way we started rolling there a little bit offensively. We're able to pull back to 14-14 going into halftime. And then told the kids at halftime that we have to have a good first offensive drive and score. And so went down and did that. And that was a good night for us. Yeah, and you kind of referenced there that the resolve of your kids showed. And after the first quarter, I mean, like you said, it was 14-0 where if you go back to the last two quarters of the week before, you had been out scored over three quarters, 58-6. And we talked about coming into the game, you know, basically this game against your yard felt like you had to win it if you wanted to get things rolling in the right direction throughout the season. So just a little bit about the kind of message maybe going into the second quarter in between quarters where we were able to really get things rolling. Yeah, it was good to see that fight from our kids. I know we talked about it last night post game. It was good to see those kids show a little bit of grit, a little bit of toughness, a little bit of mental toughness coming back from 14 points down there in the first quarter and just kind of get things to where they should be. I think there are a lot of moments in that first quarter where we were kind of beating ourselves, putting ourselves in tough positions offensively and defensively. And once we got that cleaned up, we were clicking on all cylinders the rest of the night there in the second and third quarter hit a little bit of a low in the fourth quarter. Had some guys come out with cramping, so got to get that figured out rolling in the week. Well, and I thought, you know, the biggest play in the game probably came from your defense late in the second quarter where you had made it 14-6 and were driving. I think on a third and short play a snap went over your quarterback's head and Schrod was able to recover it with, I think, a little over maybe two or three minutes remaining in the half where they had the ball in a 14-6 lead where if they were able to drive on a short field score, they'd have a two score lead a half time. But defensively it come up big force a turnover, get the ball back, and then we're able to drive down the field and end up tying the game basically in the final minute of the first half. Obviously to me, I mean, that felt like probably the biggest swing in the game, getting that ball back to set up the drive to tie the game at halftime because I think, you know, for Schrod, they would have felt a lot different for them up 14-6 at halftime as opposed to tied 14-14 like you referenced. You get in the ball to start the second half. So, so a big play there for sure. Yeah, there's a good play for our defense. Got pressure on the quarterback. They were running kind of some vertical passing schemes there. And I think they were trying to get a score late in the in the half. So got pressure on the quarterback, Bodie Solomon made a big play, knocked it out, got the recovery, and then we went into a two minute drill after that. Kids did a good job executing going off the band. We run two minute drill every Thursday in practice, so it was good to see them go out and execute that and come away with some points right before halftime. So, for you, obviously playing without Tannen Whitehall last night, shifting Mason Gray to more of a tailback spot as opposed he played receiver last week. He looked good out of the backfield. So, what'd you make of kind of the backfield effort without Whitehall for the first time this week? Yeah, I think it was a good group effort in the backfield. Mason ran hard, gave the ball to CDAM a few times. He ran really hard. He got John in the mix a few times using his legs to do so. It was a good group effort in the backfield. Got Trey Zeitler in the game a couple times just when we had some bodies go down. Can't say enough about that kid, man. He's one of the kids that, you know, doesn't get a lot of attention on the team as far as, you know, a big time player, but Trace works his tail off in the weight room and he's our next guy up at a lot of positions. So, we were throwing him in and out of the game last night at outside back or tailback, full back. So, really happy that that kid got some run in our backfield too last night. I know he didn't get any carries, but just to be able to rely on a kid like that and throw him in the game at multiple positions is huge for us depth wise. Well, and your reference earlier too, you know, like special teams were a lot better in week two than they were in week one, especially obviously, you know, and the kick returns, you got a couple of really good returns to start the second half. I think it was Mason Gray returned across the 50 down. I think a 38 yard line would set you up with a short field to take the lead. So, I know you said week one post game, we need to kind of reevaluate what we're doing on special teams. So, I'm sure you had to like the results in week two from the special teams unit sounds like. Yeah, the special teams units played well outside of one point that we kind of shanked off the side of our foot. But yeah, the kick return team was really good all night. It's a lot different call and plays on your side of the 50 than it is call and plays back up on your own five so No, that that team was great all night. I think the frontline guys did a good job of getting in position to make some spring blocks there and our returners did a good job this week to catch in the ball field in the ball and getting up field so happy for that group. And again, it's a three phase game offense defense special team. So, when your special teams units that's your offense up with a short field. That's always a good thing. Well, we talked about a pregame to coming in Charard coming to Alito felt like it was kind of a special game, you know, for the first time and I think 20 years first match up between Alito slash Mercer County and Charard in 19 years. And I know Charard had won the last two meetings between Charard and Alito back in the day. So, I was talking to one of your assistants down on the field before the game. And that's something he said. He's like, you know, it's been a long time since we've beaten them. And I think I'm like we've touched on to throughout the preseason and last night, you know, playing the local school, it makes the game feel bigger where I think, you know, Mercer County beating Charard, it felt like an important win both in terms of like the season. But for the program to beat the neighboring school, I think always feels pretty good. So just a little bit about getting to beat Charard in the first meeting between the school since 2005. Yeah, as a big one for us, big one for the program, big one for the kids. Big one for a lot of reasons, you know, it's our first win in the new conference, first, first home win of the year, first win for some of these kids playing at the varsity level for the first time. So, a lot of first last night, happy for the kids, proud of how they fought, proud of how they executed there outside of the first quarter and he has a big one for us. All right, and then we talked about this a little bit last night you referenced it earlier here this morning to dealing with a lot of, you know, type of cramp type of injuries last night and in week one to where I know when we talked about last night you said, you know, you can't blame it on the heat this week because it was a more fall type temperature last night. But something that I was thinking about is like the two games that you've played have been really long in terms of like real time. Like last night I think got done past nine thirty and last week was about the same time where those are really, really long high school football games about two and a half hours plus probably. So, I mean, do you think that has any impact in it in terms of just the length of games you played. I know there's not a whole lot you can do to change the length of the game. But to me, I mean, I think I would play maybe a little bit of a role. Yeah, I mean, I'm going to be honest with you, I'm not the clamping expert. I'm not, I'm not a trainer or anything like that. So my two cents on it is I got to push the kids a little bit harder in practice. Because we can get more game speed reps. We do a lot of fun speed in practice where we, you know, get 11 hats to the football on defense on offense, you know, you run through first contact. I have to do a better job as a head coach of this team making practice reps more, more game-like so our bodies are adjusted to that fast twitch muscle response and make sure we're ready on Friday nights. All right, and that's a good segue to the week three matchup and I'm expecting that will be another long game because, Orian, they like to pass the ball. And that is an understatement, I think. So, another kind of unique challenge and unique preparation, I'm sure, for a team that you know is going to drop back to pass, you know, 40 plus times probably next week. So, just a little bit about the early read on a big week three matchup with a pair of one in one teams with Mercer County and Orian next week. Yeah, so work, work side for the matchup. Again, another team we haven't played in quite a while in this program. So, I know coach filler throws the heck out of the ball over there. So, our secondary has to be ready to play and then offensively, the main focus again this week is we have to start much faster than we have the past two weeks. Just kind of, you saw the last two weeks shoot ourselves on the foot on the opening drive and we just have to come out and ready to play from the first whistle on both sides of the ball. All right, Mercer County is one in one of the season after a 34 14 win at home over Sherard last night. That's that coach of the Golden Eagles Tanner Matler joining us this morning coach. Thanks for talking with us and we'll talk to you later in the week and ready for Orian. All right, I'm Tyler Moore coming up on W.R.M.J. This summer save on Sockney at 614-0-Run. Sockney select running shoes are clearance priced at just $80 plus running apparel and clothing from Sockney is 25% off. Sockney running shoes are built to keep you stable and comfortable and are as reliable as they get and they feature crave worthy cushioning. So stop in at 614-0-Run and pick up a pair of Sockney running shoes for $80 or save on Sockney running apparel and clothing at 25% off at 614-0-Run on West Maine across from the library in Galesburg. Are you ready for your team to get their license? At Country Financial they know it's scary when you see your kids back out of the driveway for the first time. If you know your young driver has the proper protection from Country Financial, it's a little easier. Contact your local Country Financial representative to chat about car insurance today. And Alito, see me, Tracy Bigum. Or Jason Potter. In Edgerton, see me, print Bigum. Policies issued by Country Mutual Country Preferred and Country Casualty Insurance Company for Wilmington, Illinois. This is Mike Taylor back on JWarmJ.WarmJ.com Sportsline continues this morning talking now with short head coach Brandon Johnston. Tigers fall on the road to Mercer County last night. 34-14 and I guess coach Johnson will start with that. You know, I think a much more competitive effort. I think 34-14 is core. It doesn't necessarily tell the story of the game fully. So I mean, it felt like at least maybe a baby step forward from week one to week two for your ball club. Is that kind of what you think too? Yeah, I think so absolutely. You know, I thought we were we were just weren't very good week one with just some of our our own things. And again, we've set up a four by credit to Rockridge for sure. They're they're a really good team and a really good program. But things that we should be able to see on film that our kids are doing and executing are at least attempting to. We didn't see very consistently week one and in that regard, a pretty big step forward to week two. Obviously get off to a pretty good start, but just couldn't wasn't able to put four quarters together. So yeah, I think a baby step in the right direction would be a good way to describe it. But we got to take some bigger steps and do it more consistently. All right. So, you know, you talked about there getting off to a good start up 14 nothing again to the first and then 34 and answered for Mercer County to close the night. So what change do you think from the first quarter on what was going well early and then what kind of lead to Mercer County be able to pull away. Last night, you think. Yeah, combination of a few things. We saw some things early that we were able to take advantage of and like good teams do. They made an adjustment to that and kind of took some of those things away from us offensively. And we just weren't we still aren't able to consistently run the ball. We were better probably last night. I never never have seen the stats yet, but I think we're maybe a little bit better running the ball last night than we had been. But, you know, again, as much as anything, it's it's stuff that we feel like we should be able to control regardless of our opponent and too many penalties last night. Not getting aligned correctly having to burn timeouts. Missed assignments defensively just too many things that are that are on us. So another long hard look in the mirror and try to put up a better effort forward next week. Well, in watching you, you know, this is my first time seeing you in person this year last night and what sticks out, I think, as we talked about it a little bit pregame with you too is. No, you pretty open with you need to get a lot out of Carter Brown and Garrett Woodward, especially really on this season. And I think we kind of knew coming into the year two for sure are that. Greaty steel on both sides of the ball is a big piece to where I think last night, all three of those kids, you could tell I had really good games where Brown would were really active offensively and it felt like great steel made like a ton of tackles. So I know those are three kids you count on and I think, you know, performance wise last night, they look pretty good. Yeah, I think so too. You know, we we had we had spurts of some really good things last night, I thought, which again is step step in the right direction. But yeah, like you said, we, we got to get a lot of miles out of those three kids and, you know, a couple other kids with some experience, but, you know, for the most part, because of our, because of our youth number one and our, and our, you know, lack of depth and couple that was a pretty serious injury issues right now. You know, we're, we're throwing some kids into the fire, so to speak, so. You know, there, there's some bright spots, there's some individual things and some team things that I thought we did pretty well last night at times, but again, it's the consistency thing. So, you, we're just going to keep coaching our kids to be better and, and to be more consistent. Well, yeah, that's something that we talked about pregame with you too, coming into the game with Mercer County last night, as you said, you know, a vast majority of the time you spent this week wasn't necessarily on preparing for Mercer County for say it was more about looking at what, you know, you could do to be better with the kids so, and you taught touched on the youth you're playing with, you know, especially early on this year so how do you think the growth of those pieces has looked so far I know it's been from just one week to another week, but overall, what do you think of some of those younger pieces last night playing, you know, another full game, a lot of them having to go both ways. Yeah, you know, once again, a few, a few individual bright spots, you know, collectively as a team obviously just wasn't wasn't good enough, often enough. But, but some of those individual bright spots, you know, are shown improvement. And, you know, that was kind of the message as you said this past week in practice was we've got to do the things in practice to better ourselves. And, you know, we certainly as coaches had a game plan together for for Mercer County but, you know, watched a lot of film on them and stuff like that but we spent the, you know, probably 99% of our time with our kids this week. Talking about things that we can be better and working on those things in practice, a lot of individual position drill work time and stuff like that. I think, especially with the young group, I think that has to be that has to be the focal point of our development. So, you know, we can't put them in situations and expect them to have success Friday night if they don't fundamentally understand or are able to to execute what we're asking them to do on an individual level. So, you know, that is really for the foreseeable future. I think that's going to be a pretty big piece of our puzzle moving forward this season is trying to get those individual skills developed. Well, and unfortunately, as we've touched on with you to the injury bug is bit pretty bad, especially early on that has caused you'd have to go to a lot of those young kids so is there any, you know, updated timeline line on any of the pieces you're missing to feel like anybody will be back soon. Hey, we're hopeful. Sam Steckle probably is going to be the first guy we hope it's going to be back for us. I'm not sure if we're getting him back this week yet or not as of right now, it kind of sounds like it. It would maybe be a game time decision for this week and possibly still another week or two after that so we'll just kind of see how he recovers this week, but that would probably be the first one that we maybe get back here sooner than later. All right, and then we touched on obviously an oh and two start now with losses to Rock Ridge and Mercer County. What was kind of your message to your kids last night post game before you got back on the bus to head home. Yeah, just just consistency is what it's, you know, I've said it probably 15 times this morning here and, and, you know, that was the message for them. Because we did we showed showed some signs of being really, really good at times last night and just couldn't quite do enough, often enough. You know that that's a good team. You know our, our, our first three games as everybody knows is, is some pretty tough opponents but message was consistency. Stay the course and focus on the process that it takes because it is it's a long process. It's a long season. Just kind of challenge those kids to, you know, keep that focus on what we've got to do individually and then obviously collectively put it all together. Well, looking ahead, you referenced it there to Friday night, probably the toughest test you'll have all year on the road at Princeton. So just if you have an early read on your opponent in week three. What do you know about Princeton other than the fact that they're really good. Yeah, that's all I know right now. We haven't really seen him. I think we've maybe seen like a couple of their games in my four years here now on film just through like film exchange and stuff like that so And we've got their, their film from last night but I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. But yeah they're, they're really good. They coach Pearson's doing an awesome job up there and he has got that thing rolling so We want our kids to be open to those challenges. You know I don't shy away from from being open and honest with our kids about those things. We want to develop an attitude in this program where we want to play in those kinds of games and we want to be able to compete with those kinds of teams So, you know, the message still though remains the same for our kids this week. It's not about who we're playing. It's we've got to focus on getting ourselves better at what we do. I'm Jay Tigers fall to Mercer County last night, 34 14 and even took some time to talk with us during the junior Tigers flag football this morning. So coach, you just heard a whistle in the background. So coach, thanks for talking with us and I will see you later in the week. Yeah, thanks. I appreciate it. Yeah, we're out here at Clifford Kingfield with opening weekend of junior Tiger football. So it's an awesome time. There's got a whole bunch of kids and a lot of excitement out here. So hopefully some really good things for the future of our program going on today. Awesome. It was an 8 a.m. kickoff this morning bright and early and we're back with more on WRJ after this. Discover the Diamond Ag difference and take your harvest to the next level. Diamond Ag offers the top seed brands in the industry, including Midwest, Stein, Brevant, LG and Zitavo. Their nutritionals and crop protection will keep your fuels healthy and resilient all year long and no one in the Ag retail industry offers a broader selection of fertilizer products and services. Contact seed manager Brian Brooks at 309-58-2-4681. Diamond Ag with locations in Alito, Alexis and Knoxville, deeply rooted in quality people and quality service. Start Cross Country sees it off right with a stop at 614-0 run in Galesburg. Build your endurance with a pair of Sockney Cross Country Spikes, plus save during the Hey Dude Shoes Clothes Out Sale. Don't fall for the online fakes. Get pairs of Hey Dude Shoes for as low as $40 and Boots for as low as $65. This is your sign to get moving. Visit 614-0 run in Galesburg today. And this is Ty Taylor on W-R-M-J, W-R-M-J.com. Speaking now with Orienne Head Coach, Chip Filler, Chargers, followed home in Week 2 to Monmouth Roseville 60-26. And Coach Filler, I know talking before he went on the air. I mean, you said this Monmouth Roseville team is a very, very good team and you got to see him in person last night. So just a little bit about, you know, last night's game against a team that we both think is really good. You know, they really, I mean, I'll tell you to be honest with you, you know, just from here and from you, like how big they are and how they're really huge, whatever. You don't even have an idea until you get up close to them. And they, especially when they walk, when they walk through the line on us, I was like, oh my gosh, like they're all that way. The quarterback, I don't know what his name is. He would be a right guard for us. You know, I mean, and he's not, they're all put together really well. I mean, their strength and conditioning coach should get a raise over them. Like, they, they look good. They look like a small college football team. And I made this comment to our assistants. I said, if Coach Braun lets these kids out of Monmouth, they all should be starting for the Mom and College next year. They're offensive line. I mean, it would be incredible. But, yeah, they, they're big and they're physical. They don't, they don't beat themselves. And, and you know this, I'll say one of their, one of their hidden treasures, I guess, is their kickoff guy. He, he kicked it away from Owen on every, we tried to flip Owen. We tried to put Owen back there by himself. We tried to do everything. And he would not, he, he kicked it away from him every time. I don't know how a kid that Tovash just can figure out to kick away. It's just incredible. And it goes down inside the five yard line. And just, just like a week ago with Mercer County, we started our second drive inside the 10 yard line and it, you know, you have to go 90 yards. Your success rate is not very good. So they just say, I thought they did, they're, they're a really good football team and they're going to make a lot of noise. All right. You know, Monmouth Rosal is a team that as we saw last week with the game with Mercer County, once they get it rolling, it can really go in a hurry. And that last night for the second straight week, they outscore a team in a quarter, 38, six was a spread in the second quarter last night. So just, you know, that quarter where it got away from you, what were some of the things that went wrong that led to Monmouth Rosal kind of pulling away there late in the first half. Well, I think we had a, we had a great opening drive. We answered their score right away. And, and then we just couldn't, you know, we're going three now. We couldn't sustain anything offensively. We get a couple of first downs here and there. And then we're giving the ball right back to them. They block a punt. I mean, it's, it's really, it's, you know, it's the same story. There's a lot of their special teams that. I don't, I don't know that we made them. I don't know how. I don't know how anybody's going to make him plan to be honest with you unless they. I don't, I mean, they just, they really just mall people. I mean, they just get up on the ball and they move you often. We just don't have that. You know, we're starting too many young kids and there was a lot of deer in the heads. I look, you know, I mean. When we have a defense, a sophomore defensive and that's 160 pounds going against their tackles that are 320 and probably. They probably curl 160 pounds, you know, on their own. And I mean, he just, he's just getting moved. And it's like, there's nothing we can do for him. Like, well, this is your technique. Good luck, kid. You're just not waiting to buy. He's twice your size and he's 18. So, I mean, that, that really got us. I think that's kind of where we're at. We just see, you know, we're soft. We're pretty much a sophomore team at times playing to get played in a varsity league. And it's tough and it shows. Well, I know coming into the game, we had talked about where the big concern, of course, is how you matched up with them up front. And I'm sure it's hard to kind of, I guess, grade how your kids played up front because, like you said, you basically go in with a really difficult time of even competing with them up front because of the youth and the. You know, how undersized you are. So. Overall, through two weeks, I know week one, you liked how you looked up front last night. I would say hard to grade. So how do you feel where those kids are at, you know, heading into the third game of the season next week? Well, again, we'll take a better look at the film, you know, this weekend. I think I'm not going to see a lot of good things. I think there's, you know. Well, I thought this was going to happen and I thought this was, I thought I was in the right spot. And I don't necessarily know that, you know, that that's going to be the answer really when you watch the film, but I will say this. They were a resilient group. They never, they never wanted out of the game. They took every challenge, just, hey, okay, like, we're going to get better. You know, every, every week or, you know, every play, I guess, we're going to get a little bit better. And, you know, we had some nice runs, you know, Griffin, Santa had, like, a 50 yard touchdown run that he looked real good and aligned blocked really well on that one. You know, we had a hard time getting kale time. They were blitzing. They were bringing pressure. And, you know, and from different angles, you know, they were, you know, linebackers, you know, swapping responsibilities, they were running games inside. So all those things that probably these sophomores have never seen before, or our young offensive line have never seen before, and they just kind of capitalize and took, and took it out of that way. But again, like I said, I told them before, when I left, I said, this game, this game is going to go one or two ways. It's either you're going to learn a lot from this film, which I think we will, or you're going to shy away and make this loss a really a 60 point loss and have it be catastrophic. So I think I think we'll rise to the challenge. I think we'll be better, you know, after watching the film, insurance and things. These guys have to make mistakes, and they got to see those mistakes on film. We just happen to see it, and we'll go correct it. All right, so coming out of the matchup with Mademath Rosal, something we talked about pre-season with you too, is how important it is for you to stay healthy with the 24 kids out. So through two weeks, how do things look on the health report? Everybody healthy, missing anybody? How does it look there? Oh, everybody looks good. You know, we've got some of our linebackers that have, you know, their shoulders are a little bit banged up. But everything really, I mean, I think that's a day by day. Everybody's going to make it to Friday, barring some unforeseen circumstance. Jake jammed us, not anything major, killed through the ball too hard at him, but it was, I think, every now and there were good. So I think we're going to be at full strength or as full strength as you can be going into week three with Mercer County. Moving on to the next question I have for you talking about week three with Mercer County. First time the programs have played in quite some time. And I know it's a big game for both teams. The first divisional game for both programs, both teams at one and one on the season. And sometimes, you know, when you look down the line of the schedule, it feels like one in one week three. It's a lot different being two and one than it is one and two. So what do you know about this Mercer County team as you start to prepare for them on Friday night? Well, you know, I still believe that, you know, they're they have a lot of energy. You know, I think Tanner brings a lot of energy to his team being a young coach. You know, spread, you know, we throw the ball, they're very mirror us in many ways. You know, just just kind of watching kind of watching their week one and our week two. It was very similar, you know, poor special teams and just getting run all the way over. And then, and then I haven't seen the tape on Schurard, but I think the Schurard game is much like our week one where they were able to have some success in the air and they were able to score some points. And then that's how we were. So I think I think we're very similar in many, many ways, probably about a touchdown separates us, you know, to be quite honest. Hope I'm hoping since we're at home that that's where that plus seven will come in our in our favor, but you know, we'll have to see. All right, that's already at Coach Chip filler joining us this morning on WRMJ Chargers now one and one after a 60 to 26 loss to my method. Well, last night's the Chargers and the Golden Eagles Friday night coach filler. Thanks for talking with us and we'll see you later this week. Okay, we'll see you tight. All right, I'm Tyler Moore coming up on WRMJ. You finally have your dream home. Now you need the right insurance to protect it because when it comes time to file a claim, you don't want any surprises. Talk to a country financial representative to find out if you have the right protection. They can help you understand your options and select coverages to meet your needs. And Alito see me Tracy Bigum. Or Jason Potter in Eddington see me, Brent and Bigum. Home insurance policies issued by country mutual insurance company, country casualty insurance company or country referred insurance company will meet in Illinois. Discover the diamond ag difference and take your harvest to the next level. Diamond Ag offers the top seed brands in the industry, including Midwest, Stein, Brevant, LG and Zatavo. Their nutritionals and crop protection will keep your fuels healthy and resilient all year long. And no one of the Ag retail industry offers a broader selection of fertilizer products and services. Contact seed manager Brian Brooks at 309-58-246-81. Diamond Ag with locations in Alito, Alexis and Knoxville, deeply rooted in quality people and quality service. Jim Taylor, back on WMJWMJ.com, a hard-hitting game Friday night at Rock Ridge where the Rockets fall 27-18. First up just offensively to talk a little bit about kind of what problems Princeton was presenting Friday night. You know, they have a really good defensive line and their linebackers are real fast. They play a stack defense and use speed of their backers but it's not your average linebacker. I mean, that 52 kid is, I mean, he's a stud at middle backer and we couldn't touch him. You know, he was, they kind of out-physicaled us up front even. I talked to coach after the game and, you know, they knew that we were giving him some problems throwing the ball. So, I mean, he even flat out admitted that, you know, they could go forward and five in the box and stop us from running the ball. So, their defensive line was definitely more physical than us. You had to be proud though of your defensive effort really in the second half. The field position tonight for Princeton in the second half, their own 35. The 16 of Rock Ridge, the 15 of Rock Ridge, the 44 of Rock Ridge, the 48 of Rock Ridge. And you give up a grand total of six points in the second half. What did you really notice about your defense, I'd say, from the second quarter off? Yeah, we did a much better job. It's almost, you know, you don't want to blame people but you can't get a good look at someone that good in practice. And, you know, you're relying on some young kids and, you know, that first quarter we definitely weren't aligning. They popped out in the new formation that we should know. But we weren't aligning correctly and they kind of gassed us a couple of times with some things. And our fill wasn't correct and we were able to fix it once we could get them to the sidelines so they could understand what they were doing. But yeah, almost like in a big game, it's a good learning moment for us though because in a big game, you tend to panic a little bit and things move real fast on you and you kind of do your own thing out there. And once they were able to settle down a little bit and read their key and play, understand where they were supposed to fit and fill. I mean, it can be a little minor thing if I'm a safety and my read does one thing and I come inside the tight end instead of outside the tight end on my fill, it ruins our defense. Everyone has a spot they fit and once we were able to kind of see that and understand where we were fitting it, it was much better. Well, and if you say, I know a game doesn't come down to one play, but tonight if a game came down to one play, to me, the backbreaker was, they call the timeout. They come down, they come out in the, their last touchdown, they scored, it was a fourth and fourth situation. They call the timeout, come out, fake the full back and give it to the wing back Etheridge for the 39 yard. I mean, that to me kind of was probably the play of the game when you looked at the scoreboard. Yeah, and that's the one that we had to show. We actually showed the video that at halftime. That's one where in the secondary, we knew they were trying to reach to get to the edge, but we had two guys dip down inside when one was supposed to go inside one fit outside. So enabled them to get to the edge and yeah, that hurt us. It did. But again, you know, and the talk was to the guys too, that you made adjustments, you kept fighting. This is a very good three three probably three. Sometimes they go for a football team and you know, they've played some really tough people that we talked about earlier on pre game of, you know, Montini and play people like that. They take those people to overtime and play tough with them in the playoffs and you just did that with them and not that they're getting a participation trophy, not they want that but, you know, they need to understand that once they started to really read their key and play physical and fast and understand where they're filming, they hung with them and, you know, the good thing is we get this game comes early. It's two sided, you know, it gets, it gets out of the way early so you can see what errors you made and where you need to improve quickly with a team like that. They kind of expose you if you have some problems. But, you know, the second thing, which that's the good. The second thing is that you're also worried about what happens and if somebody goes down, you know, big physical game like this. You know, hopefully you don't want to get anybody injured. Well, and unfortunately that happened early in this game where you lose Ryan lower one of your huge playmakers but holy smokes to the one guy come kid come in and play tough for you at that linebacker spot. And then, you know, the other bull kid that came in, you know, on offensive line, I thought he did a pretty good job. You know, he's just tough trying to establish a run game but kind of the next man mentality, I think the kids that came in and had to play in this type of game tonight. I didn't think you lost much. No, they and you're right. That's what you have to do. And this is small school football and you lose a starter and it might be going from a senior to a sophomore to hurry. So, you know, Isaac does a good job. He was the one that kind of stepped in. We had to reshuffle a line. McKeg was our left tackle and he went down to guard and then we put Isaac in a tackle. So it kind of shuffled some things. And yeah, he's a great, he was a kid that battled for a starting spot in the summer. And I think mentally is in a much better place now than he was in the summer learning stuff that we had, we threw a lot at him early to kind of testing to see where he was. And, you know, he was able to step in for us and run the plays. And like you said, Tanner die came in on some, they gave us some good D line reps. We moved Brody from D line back to linebacker. So, you know, when one person got hurt, it moved around a lot of positions and the kids responded. And then just the other thing tonight, special teams was a difference. They get two fuel goals and it's nice to have that luxury when you get stopped to get points. But you force them to make that decision, which I think was kind of an advantage for Rock Ridge that you didn't allow them to get in the end zone. But it's tough when you play small school football when they can put a kid out there like that. And then I was bragging so much about special teams last week and that was the difference in the, the first, the kicking game was the difference in this game. They scored night points via the kick and you got zero tonight and that loom large. Yeah, it did. We talked about that last week. Like you said, you almost take it. You overlook that part of the game when you had Vandy Geese for four years and he's, you know, ripping 34 for 34 every year. And yeah, that hurt because it put us behind the eight ball right away with this when we each scored and then they jumped up because they made their extra points. So, yeah, that in close games that can win and lose you games. And that's what we talk about all the time is the importance of special teams like this isn't a part of the game you take off. It's just as important as anything else and it can, you know, lose your games. Like you said, they got nine extra points on on field rules and P.A.T.s. So, you know, and then the other thing we talked about is protecting the ball with a team like Princeton. You know, you looked at their starting field position there is unreal. You got to take care of the ball and punting the ball is not a bad thing. It's a really defensive physical game. Punting is not bad. You just can't turn it over. All right. Well, a good effort by the kids tonight. We'll see you up at the river down next Friday. Yeah, I appreciate you being here. Sam Braves head coach of the Rockets man a hard fought game Friday night falling to Princeton 27 18 Jim Taylor on W M J W M J dot com. Building relationships supporting the community and service. These are the things country financial stands for. We're neighbors who lend a helping hand and support the fabric of our community, including charitable organizations, sports, financial education and civic organizations. Since we're already neighbors, let's get together and chat to talk about the things that are important to you and how we can help you protect them. See your local country financial representative today in Alito. See me Tracy Bigum or Jason Potter in Edginton. See me. Print Bigum. Discover the Diamond Act difference and take your harvest to the next level. Diamond Ag offers the top seed brands in the industry, including Midwest, Stein, Brevant, LG and Zatavo. Their nutritionals and crop protection will keep your fields healthy and resilient all year long and no one in the Ag retail industry offers a broader selection of fertilizer products and services. Contact Seed Manager Brian Brooks at 309-58-2-4681. Diamond Ag with locations in Alito, Alexis and Knoxville, deeply rude and quality people and quality service. This summer save on Saucony at 614-0 run. Saucony select running shoes or clearance priced at just $80 plus running apparel and clothing from Saucony is 25% off. Saucony running shoes are built to keep you stable and comfortable and are as reliable as they get and they feature crave worthy cushioning. So stop in at 614-0 run and pick up a pair of Saucony running shoes for $80 or save on Saucony running apparel and clothing at 25% off. At 614-0 run on West Main across from the library in Galesburg. All right, that's right. A third of the regular season is going to be over when we talk next Saturday. I know, crazy, crazy. And I was going to ask you, because I thought we had a great interview on the high school spotlight this week, the market. Dylan, is that the name? So what did the new marching band uniform look like? I bet you're... They look great. I bet your rusty ruggles thought he was the big man. I got the full breakdown. I got the full breakdown from him last night because he was up in the press box, setting up the video streaming stuff. There's a lot more white on the uniforms this year. He told his kids no one can eat hot dogs during games. Or not, Joe. Right. He said, "What's going to happen is there mustard stains everywhere." So I wanted to bring that up too. Man, I tell you, the rockridge marching band at halftime, last night was my commercial break. I'm like, "They are in late season." Awesome. I love bands. My mythrosals was a good last week too. So again, I'm going to bring this up about that this week, and I hit Mr. Ruggles hat. I was at a volleyball match this week. Who'd Mercer County play this week? Again, it doesn't matter who they played because it doesn't add anything to the story you're going to tell. Oh, right. Well, I'd add something because Mercer County plays already in football. But anyway, I said to him, I said, "I got an idea," and he's like, "Oh, great." And I said, "I want to see, like when Mirko plays Sherard or Rockridge maybe next year, we do one of the games where it's a joint marching band kind of performance where whoever's playing that band, they're marching band travels." And then they play on their side of the field during the timeouts. We play on our side of the field during the timeouts and then like a joint performance at halftime. Yeah. What do you think about that? That would be hard to coordinate. No, I think they way the music that like the Carri Land Jr. High Music Festivals are so awesome. It would be cool. And then do that for like when Mercer plays Rockridge or Sherard. Right. I think that would be a great, that would add so much to the atmosphere. Yeah, I think so too. Next week, I think our biggest game is Mercer County Warion. That's a big one. I'm excited for it. I'm already excited. I wish they were playing today. Yeah. I think that's an intriguing matchup. The margins, I don't know if that means much, but the margins are. Similar and you, you look at, you know, Orion with fillers produced at quarterback Mercer County. Again, like we mentioned down 14 nothing yesterday and the first half and rallied back to score the final. What 36 points of the game or what was the at 36 was that the final 36 34 34 14. So yeah, and when you look at the rest of the schedule and how teams are fairing in the league, it's a huge game. And last night was a huge game for Merko just with Sherard when you're trying to get those five wins in the league. And then tall order for the Tigers who are playing the other Tigers and who Princeton proved last night. They're the elite team on both sides of the division. And then I'm interested to see Riverdale play next week. They hung tough last night losing 27-18 to Akiwani. And the Rockets will be a bit short-handed again next week playing without Ryan Lower. So, you know, that'll be, I guess. We'll find out where Riverdale is in the mix with the outcome of that game next Friday. Who do you have tonight, Illinois or Kansas? I'm going, and this is what I'm going to tell you. So, in Lovey's early in his career, he had that sellout early in his tenure in Illinois play. Was it North Carolina? Yep, Mitch Trubisky. We were there. And Robert Quinn was a defensive lineman on that team, right? No, he was gone. He was long gone. Oh, long gone. Okay. He started playing the NFL in like 2011. So, yeah. It would have been North Carolina. 2016. And that was such a great atmosphere that night's sellout. Kind of like tonight. Yeah. And the line I got off to a good start, that game with Keishan Vaughn. And then he transferred. He did something in that game and wound up not playing much anymore. Right. And I think this is one of those games that Illinois, you know, you want to maintain the vibe and you want sellouts at Memorial Stadium consistently. Not once every six games or whatever. They get a win tonight. They're going in the right direction, beating a quality opponent. I don't know. Are you picking a win or a loss? Well, I'm putting you on the spot here. I'm going coach Bila Maub. 2724 Illinois is my pick in a great game. I'm excited. I'm going to be there. I'm going to be screaming and yelling and elbow and people. Yeah. And the one thing about, I think that that stadium, the best vibe for that stadium is the night games for some reason. I really like the vibe. And by the way, getting back to last night, I love teams when they wear the all white uniforms. Me too. And Princeton all white last night. Their helmets are white. I love their helmets. I think every team goes all white though. Most teams, not every team, but most teams are all white on the road. But I like it. It's a good look. Well, and especially when the lights take full effect. Yeah. That's when I think that that is just kind of an awesome setting. And man, I tell you last night that the weather for high school football was perfect where you had temperatures in the 60s for most of the game. Very little wind in just perfect conditions. And here's the other interesting thing though. About next week when you talk about Orient and Merco, the weather heats up again next week. So later next week they're talking highs near 90 Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So that will always factor in the outcome. I hate that these games. Especially when you have small rosters. You know, Orient's got a small roster. And I know Mercer County, their numbers aren't larger than Orient's. But, you know, again, you're dealing with some of that stuff where the heat's really going to be on next week too. That upsets me I'm selfish because that Orient press box especially, it's so hot up there. That ruined my Saturday. So we got Orient, Merco, no question. Key matchup, but next week in the league, much attention on that. And then against Chirard Princeton and the Rock Ridge Rockets travel from Lower Rock Island County to Upper Rock Island County. And is Jay Hatch still in the press box for the Riverdale? He did the scoreboard last year. I sat next to him when Chirard played up there. He's a great guy to talk to. He's been around high school sports for a long time. He is hilarious too. He knows a lot. And what I like about him is when you go to a lot of sporting events, sometimes you'll randomly see him like at an Augustana game. Kind of just really intently watching the action. He's there to walk. When I worked in the SID office at Auggie, when I was in college, he was always helping us out at certain stuff. Like he was always at football games, I remember. So the last time I saw him was at the, what's the conference tournament? Missouri Valley. That's the Miss Women. Yeah. And that was before Mercer County had hired their new girls basketball coach. And I jokingly said to him, I said, there's the new girls basketball coach at Mercer County. So anyway, it'll be nice to see, good to see him a lot. So the Eagles will get the Rememberdale Rams, of course, in girls basketball too. And I think it's the Judy Richmond tournament next week in a lead. I couldn't tell you. I know it's in September. Yeah, I don't know. So that's coming up. So that's our coverage heading toward next week. But the band at Rockridge was awesome last night. I'm glad to hear about the new uniforms with Mercer County Band. I'm excited for next week. Next Friday should be fun with Mercer County. Well, and a lot of positive reaction concerning Montgomery Smith. Yeah, he's ready. I talked to him. So we keep saying we're going to finish and then we keep talking about more different things. But Coach Smith, he coached with Coach Johnston in a one weather field career for a few years. So down in the field post game, the last people on George Pratt Memorial Field last night were me, Monty, his wife, and Coach Johnston. Those were the last four. And then Jeff Parsing showed up. Yeah, right. Yeah, they're always good guys to talk to and Coach Johnston told a hilarious story about one of his kids who had never been to Alito before, which was funny. He said the kid was like, "Where's Alito?" He knew they were coming to Mercer County, but the kid was like, "The Sherrod Kid?" Yeah, yeah. He's like, "Well, what town is Mercer County?" And they're like, "Alito." And it was funny. He was just telling the story about how he couldn't believe that the kid didn't know where Alito was. Oh my goodness. There's no way you've never been to Alito, that's what he said. But it might be the truth. It was funny. That was a funny story. So that's what we talked about at the 25-yard line last night. All right. I got nothing else to say. Go online. Hopefully they can get a nice win tonight over the Jayhawks, man. And the Cyhawk game taking place between Iowa and Iowa State. No heavy traffic on Interstate 80 today, heading to Kennek. Speaking of Oregon, now is Logan Lee. I don't think he'll be active. He's inactive tomorrow, but he's on the 53-man roster. So great for Logan Lee. Okay. All right. That'll do it for the W.R.M.J. sports line on this Saturday morning for Ty Taylor. Jim Taylor, W.R.M.J. sports. This has been Sportsline on WRMJ and WRMJ.com. Brought to you by Diamond Ag, your local Ag retail supplier built from your local specifications with locations in Alito, Alexis and Knoxville. By your local country financial representatives, Tracy Bigot, Jason Potter, and Brent Bigot, offering insurance for your life, health, home, auto, farm, or business. And by 6140 Running Galesburg, your spot for custom-fitted running and walking shoes, gay-dude shoes, and Birkenstock sandals, plus red-wing and wolverine work boots. The pre-seeding has been a presentation of WRMJ sports, your high school sports voice in western Illinois. [music]