Rock Island 41, Galesburg 6
A rough night for Galesburg, which dropped a 41-6 decision to visiting Rock Island, became even uglier when fights broke out as the two teams completed the traditional handshakes after the game.
The game was marred by a deluge of penalties, many of which were for personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct on both sides, including a Galesburg assistant coach being tossed from the game.
“Yeah, sloppy game, not well played,” head coach Shawn Hickey said after the game. “We came out, threw two picks, they got momentum, went up three scores on us, and we just couldn’t recover from that. We just kind of fell apart from there.”
Those two interceptions, both of which occurred in the opening minutes and resulted in touchdowns, allowed the Rocks to take control quickly.
Evan Ellis scored Rock Island’s first touchdown just 21 seconds into the game on a 52-yard pass from quarterback Myles Duster. The second touchdown came soon after when the Rocks’ Cardreyon Smith picked off a pass from Day’Vion Jones, setting his team up at the Galesburg 27-yard line.
Jones started in place of Grady Hickey, who was injured Oct. 10 at Quincy, where the Streaks also lost wide receiver Antwon Walker.
Rock Island intercepted a second pass and converted that into a touchdown with about 4:30 left to play in the first quarter. Duster completed a 33-yard pass play to Ellis. The Rocks added their final touchdown of the quarter with 49 seconds to play.
Heading into the second quarter, Rock Island was up 27-0 with one extra-point kick having been missed.
“Nothing seemed to be working,” Hickey said. “Run game wasn’t working. Pass game wasn’t working. The two interceptions were just—we just never recovered from those. You got the first score, then they got the two (scores) off the interceptions, and then it was, you know, we just never, never came back from that.”
The Silver Streaks limited the damage after that, but a string of penalties on both sides contributed to the ineffectiveness.
Rock Island added a touchdown and an extra point with 4:30 to play in the second quarter. Duster and Thomas connected again on a fourth-down play for a 36-yard touchdown.
Its final touchdown came midway through the third quarter. At that point, the Rocks had amassed a 41-0 lead.
Bradley Eaton, a starting wide receiver and defensive back, took over at quarterback for the second half. With less than two minutes to play, Eaton tossed a quick pass to Kevin Phillips, who took the ball the rest of the way for the score. One of the few extra-point kicks the Streaks have attempted this season was blocked.
The Streaks managed 111 yards on offense, while the Rocks had 272.
Hickey noted that Grady Hickey was the leading passer for yardage in the league, and Walker was second in the league in receptions and yardage.
“When you have weapons like that, and you lose them, it’s hard,” Hickey said, “but that’s our job as coaches to get people ready to go and get them ready for the next game and our opponent, and that’s—we just couldn’t get going offensively.”
The touchdown avoided the shutout, something that has happened twice to the Silver Streaks this season.
The fourth quarter was played with a running clock, which is permitted when one team is in such dominant control of the score.
The postgame fight occurred because of a towel incident during the final moments of the game, Hickey said. Players and coaches complained to the officials that a Rock Island player had picked up a Silver Streaks player’s towel and stuffed it into his pants. The towel, which was pink, carried extra significance because several Galesburg players had worn pink in a nod to Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
That escalated the bad feelings throughout the game that had resulted in numerous penalties, many of which were for unsportsmanlike conduct and personal fouls. Players from both teams rushed to the defense of teammates as coaches tried to break things up.
“We try to change the culture of a program,” Hickey said, “and we do well for seven games, and we lose it in the eighth game. And it’s just, it’s unfortunate. We told our guys going through the line to shake hands, not a word, and they didn’t listen. So, we’ll keep trying to mold boys into men.”
Galesburg’s record is now 2-6, 1-5 in the Western Big 6. Rock Island improves to 2-6 overall, 2-4 in the conference. The Streaks will close out their season at Moline on Oct. 24. The Maroons will be seeking their eighth straight win.
Looking ahead to the final game, Hickey said, “We’ll find out who wants to come back and play one more game, who wants to finish the season the right way, cut back on our penalties, that’s not the game we want to be playing.”
