Unbeaten Quincy spoils Moline's homecoming
Quincy only needed one quarter to spoil Moline's homecoming game, scoring 15 first quarter points en route to a dominant 43-21 road win to remain undefeated.
"Quincy was as good as advertised on both sides of the ball," Moline head coach Mike Morrissey said. "Offensively, they are as good a team as we are probably ever going to see all season long."
The first quarter was an offensive clinic for the visiting Blue Devils. Quarterback Bradyn Little and Quincy needed only two plays to strike for the first score of the game, hooking up with Tykell Hammers, who ran a post pattern on a 68-yard touchdown strike with 11:16 left in the opening frame. The Blue Devils were just getting started.
Little was 16-for-21 in the first half, throwing for 322 yards and five touchdowns, displaying how lethal the seventh-ranked Class 4A Blue Devils offense can be.
"Quincy's offense is really, really tough to defend, because they have so many different weapons," Morrissey said. "It is not just one or two guys. There are five guys who could potentially touch the ball at any time who can cause major problems for us, and I thought they did a good job of spreading the ball and attacking in different spots and putting our guys in tough positions defensively."
Prior to Friday, the Maroons had yet to face a pass-happy offense like Quincy this season, and they got a rude awakening from the Blue Devils.
"Quincy was clicking and Bradyn was hitting his guys, hitting his spots and throwing in rhythm, and they are hard to beat," Morrissey said.
Little targeted wide receiver Rico Clay Jr. five times for 82 yards in the opening half, with three of those grabs resulting in a hat trick of touchdowns for the senior wideout. Nothing was more emblematic than the last Quincy offensive drive of the first half. Little and the Blue Devils marched down the field in just 37 seconds, perfectly positioning themselves with a first down at the Moline 29-yard line one second before halftime.
On the right hash, Little rolled to his left and heaved a prayer of a pass to Clay Jr, who acrobatically caught the ball while landing on his back in the right corner of the endzone for the final Quincy touchdown of the first half. That put the Blue Devils up 36-14.
"Quincy is a good team," Moline wide receiver Nolan Ducey said. "They have good players, and we definitely should have played a better game."
Little finished the night going 19-for-29 for 436 yards and six touchdowns and nary an interception.
"Little is a really good quarterback," Ducey said. "His spirals are just beautiful. He just finds his receivers, and they just catch the ball."
Things went from bad to worse for the Maroons in the closing minutes of the first half.
Starting quarterback Elijah Taylor was crunched on a late second quarter incomplete pass and was wincing on the ground in pain. Even though Taylor walked off the field on his own power, he did not return. Taylor was 5-for-6 for 75 yards before he left the game nearing halftime. Junior backup quarterback Drew Phelps was under center for the entire second half.
"Eli is OK," Morrissey said about the injury. "It was more of a precautionary thing – anytime an injury like that happens, we are going to play it on the safe side and not risk it going forward."
However, there were some bright spots for the Moline offense and the running game. Sophomores Elijah Warren and Marc Cary ran for over 100 yards and a score each, with Warren rushing for 133 yards on 23 carries and Cary 12 carries for 107 yards.
"Our offensive line had some really good moments," Morrissey said. "Those guys also had some really good moments."
Ducey finished with two catches for 45 yards, including a 36-yard touchdown pass on fourth and 15 at the Quincy 36 yard-line. He was also a perfect 3-for-3 on extra-point kicks.
"Coach Morrissey and I were on the sideline, and he drew up a play as he went, and I just flipped the defender's hips," Ducey said of his touchdown grab. "I was open, caught it, and celebrated in the end zone."
In addition, a fluke play happened midway through the third quarter. Warren fumbled the ball, and the ball popped in the air. Center Kayden Banker caught the ball in the air for a 5-yard gain.
"When the football popped up in the air, we got a little bit nervous," Morrissey said. "But I am sure that is a moment Kayden will remember forever. He displayed some good hands there, so I might have to give him an eligible number and put him at tight end next week."
The Moline defense also stepped up in the second half, only allowing one 75-yard touchdown grab from Little to wide receiver Caeden Johannessen – the second straight week the Maroons held a Western Big 6 team to under double-digit points in the second half. Moline did not allow a single point in the second half against Geneseo last Friday.
"That is exciting that we were able to sustain that kind of defense (against Quincy)," Morrissey said. "But we need to be a little bit more aggressive and play with more confidence as well. That is the big thing. There were a lot of distractions on homecoming week, but we cannot sit back and blame it on those types of things. Bottom line is that on a Friday night, both teams have to show up and play, and their guys made more plays than ours."
Moline closed out the game with a 14-play, 73-yard drive that took up nine minutes and nine seconds, ending with a one-yard touchdown plunge by Warren.
The Maroons travel to Rock Island (0-4, 0-1) to face the Rocks on Friday. The Rocks fell to Bradley-Bourbonnais (4-0), 49-14, on Friday.
"We have to understand that Rocky is going to see some things on film that they probably feel they can take advantage of, so we have to get better at those things and fix those things that we did not do well and try to keep improving," Morrissey said.
However, Ducey had a positive spin on next week's matchup against their WB6 neighbor.
"Rock Island ... we play them on my birthday," Ducey said. "We are going to bring it to them. That rivalry is such a big thing around here, and we are going to try to blow them out."
