NewsTribune football notebook: L-P freshman QB made ‘a lot of growth’

La Salle-Peru coach Jose Medina said he thought freshman quarterback Marion Persich improved throughout the season.

Persich completed 100 of 189 passes for 1,398 yards and nine touchdowns with nine interceptions as the Cavaliers finished 3-6.

“I was pleased with his progression,” Medina said. “It was a little shaky at the beginning, but he won us some games this year with his arm and his legs. I saw a lot of growth out of him from the very beginning to our last game. I definitely look out for some big things from him in the future. I think the sky is the limit for him.”

Medina said he thought Persich improved in terms of understanding when pressure was coming and when he needed to take off running.

“He made some plays with his feet,” Medina said. “He did a good job keeping his head up and looking down the field as he was scrambling. That was a big thing for him. He made some plays by doing that.”

Medina said there are some areas where Persich can improve his game.

“The biggest thing I think he needs to work on is getting the ball out quickly when he needs to get the ball out quickly and just making the right choices and taking care of the football sometimes,” Medina said.

LIFE LESSONS

St. Bede had a tough season as the Bruins dealt with “a lot of adversity this year and a lot of it was nonfootball related with sicknesses and things that have happened to these kids,” St. Bede coach Jim Eustice said.

The Bruins went 2-7 but ended on a positive note with a 38-28 win over Ottawa, which has more than 1,000 more students than St. Bede, in the finale Friday.

“I’m so happy for these seniors,” Eustice said. “They’re a great group of young men. They’ve learned a lot about life this year. For them to persevere like they did and stay with it, they’ve got this for the rest of their lives. When things get tough, don’t quit, figure out how to keep going and find solutions. If you persevere and stay true, good things are going to happen, and good things happened for us tonight.

“Our seniors will have this when they talk years from now. Everything that happened, and they ended up winning a game like this to end it.”

STILL BUYING IN

Hall-Putnam County finished 2-7 in coach Logan Larson’s first season at the helm, but he was pleased with the way the Red Devils continued to work even after a playoff berth was off the table.

“We were a 2-6 team and the players showed up every day to go to the weight room at 6 a.m. all week,” Larson said. “That says a lot about the kids and where they’re at. It’s good to see they’re so bought in and believe in what we’re trying to do.”

Larson said he’s sees potential for the future after his first season.

“I set our standards really, really high. I think we’re cutting our kids short if we’re not setting our goals at the highest level. We want to be state champions,” Larson said. “The championships Hall has won in the past are on the scoreboard, and we see it every day. There are kids on the team who’s parents played on those championship teams.

“That’s still in the community. There hasn’t been the top accomplishment recently, but we have a group of guys who really want that. They’re bought in. I knew this year was going to be tough because we installed a new offense and defense, and from a physical standpoint with where we were at in our speed and strength. But I know we have the potential moving forward. They stayed positive all year.

GOING OUT WITH A BANG

Elijah Endress’ last football game of his career was not only his best, but one of the best ever for a Bureau Valley player.

The Storm senior running back rushed for 378 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Storm to a 47-34 win over Hamilton West Hancock in the 2024 season finale.

If that was not enough, he also made 15 tackles on the defensive side of the ball.

The 378 yards are the second-highest individual game in school history after Will Konneck’s 428-yard/six TD effort against Sherrard in 2015.

WATCHING THEM GROW

With his son, Andy, a senior on L-P this season, Medina has been around some members of the senior class for many years.

“I actually had the opportunity to coach some of these young men in the youth program,” Jose Medina said. “So I’ve seen them develop and grow into a tough unit. Injuries really affected them a lot this year. But throughout the season, they stayed together. They’re a tight-knit group. When they needed to get on each other, they got on each other. It’s funny listening to them at practice and how they kind of bicker at one another, but at the same time, they support each other, pick each other up and back each other up whenever they need to.

“This group of seniors really established that family, that closeness that we as coaches want to see the team buy into.”

FIRST CATCH WITH STYLE

Princeton senior Jace Stuckey didn’t just make his first career catch in the Tigers’ 61-14 win over Erie-Prophetstown. He made a spectacular, acrobatic 16-yard grab at the 9-yard line in the second quarter to set up a touchdown by Casey Etheridge on the next play.

“I told him, ‘Maybe next time don’t make it so acrobatic and put on a show. Just catch it and get down.’ He said, ‘Hey, I’m just in it for the fans,’” Princeton coach Ryan Pearson said with a laugh. “But he made the catch. Hat’s off to him. I think that’s his first catch of the year. That was big for him.”

FILLING THE SCHEDULE

With the Interstate 8 and Chicagoland Prairie conferences each losing multiple teams after the 2023 season, La Salle-Peru and St. Bede had several holes to fill on the schedule for the 2024 season.

The Cavaliers were forced to play conference foe Ottawa in a nonconference game in Week 3 before playing the Pirates again for the Interstate 8 matchup in Week 6. L-P also had to travel more than 220 miles and over three hours to play O’Fallon in Week 9.

Medina said there could be a few changes for next season, including the possibility of a new opponent in Week 2 to replace Metamora.

“We’re kind of scrambling right now to see who has open dates,” Medina said. “I gave [L-P athletic director] Steve Hanson a list of possible teams for Week 2. Week 3 we’ll probably play Ottawa again, but I’m not opposed to looking for another opponent.

“Our schedule is probably one of the tougher ones in the state. Year in and year out we play four or five teams that make the playoffs. I’m not saying I want to make the schedule easier, but at the same time I think we need to work on getting some teams that are going to be more at our level that we can compete against and try to get those five wins.”

As for St. Bede, to fill their five nonconference games, the Bruins had to resort to scheduling larger schools and top-notch programs.

The Bruins’ schedule included seven schools larger than St. Bede and six teams that qualified for the postseason with a combined record of 40-14.

Eustice looks to play more teams comparable in size next fall.

“Next year, we still have some openings on the schedule,” Eustice said. “We’ll see what we can fill those with. Hopefully, we won’t be going through some of the things we had to go through schedule-wise. We hope districts or something will get passed. I don’t think it’s going to happen, so it is what it is. We are constantly looking. We’re trying to find 1A and 2A opponents we can play as opposed to 3A, 4A and even 5A opponents that we had to play this year. But we competed and I’m proud of this group.”