Blue Devils face adversity with tough chin in finishing back-to-back undefeated regular seasons

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Quincy High School football team had faced little adversity in breezing past its first eight opponents by an average of nearly 37 points per game.

The Blue Devils showed Friday night they could take a punch and answer with a counterpunch of their own.

Three times Quincy, which had never trailed this season, found itself looking up at Capital City on the scoreboard, and each time it responded. And a defense that had been shoved around for three quarters came up with two stops inside its own 5-yard line to preserve a 42-31 victory over the Cavaliers.

For the Blue Devils, 9-0 and ranked second in the Illinois Class 7A poll, their 21^st consecutive regular-season victory and 14^th road win in a row dating to the 2022 season, capped a second straight undefeated regular season.

But it was not without some tense moments.

“This was exactly what we needed,” Quincy coach Rick Little said. “It would be great to never be tested and win them all — that would be a beautiful plan — but this was a really good test for us. It’s not about style points. It’s about winning.”

Jeraius Rice Jr. continued to be an offensive sparkplug. The senior running back scored five touchdowns, with none bigger than his 98-yard kickoff return in the waning seconds of the first half to cap a frantic final 1 minute, 42 seconds that saw the two teams combine for four touchdowns.

Rice took the kick — the only one Weston Schofield didn’t blast through the end zone — before darting left to the far sideline and outracing a series of would-be tacklers to reach the end zone with 1 second left on the clock to give the Blue Devils a 28-24 halftime lead.

He also ran 18 times for 131 yards and three scores and caught five passes for another 130 yards and a touchdown. He has scored at least three TDs in five straight games and has at least one receiving score in every game. He has 29 touchdowns for the season.

“That was a huge play,” Little said of the return. “Special players have the ability to make plays like that. It was a big swing in the momentum because (Capital City) was going to get the ball to start the second half.”

Quincy marched 80 yards on 12 plays to score on its opening possession for the ninth straight game, with Rice taking it in from the 2.

Capital City answered with an 11-play, 80-yard drive of its own, with Demarkus Lyddon-Allen getting behind the secondary to haul in a 28-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Evan Schaffer, the first of four he would throw.

The Blue Devils needed just five plays to answer, with Rice sneaking out of the backfield to snare a pass from quarterback Bradyn Little in the right flat and beat one defender along the sideline to score from 58 yards out.

Quincy had an opportunity to take a two-touchdown lead after Rico Clay Jr. intercepted Schaefer on the first play of the second quarter and returned it to the Cavaliers’ 14.

But Little overthrew a wide-open Caeden Johannessen in the end zone on the first play, and Quincy turned the ball over on downs after Rice was stuffed for a loss on a run and Little was sacked for a loss before throwing an incompletion.

“That was a frustrating sequence,” Rick Little said. “Not being able to capitalize really hurt.”

Capital City (6-3) had to settle for Schofield’s 31-yard field goal after being stopped in the red zone. Then, Bradyn Little — under pressure for most of the night — threw his first interception since Week 5 deep in his own end.

That led to an 11-yard scoring strike from Schaeffer to Marcus Driver on third and goal to give the Cavaliers a 17-14 lead with 1:42 remaining in the first half.

Schaeffer, who entered the game having thrown for just six touchdowns on 89 attempts, completed 13 of 18 passes for 201 yards to complement Capital City’s bruising running game that ground out 215 yards on 49 attempts.

“They made every play they needed to in the pass game,” Rick Little said. “That was not something we saw on film all the time.”

The fireworks were just beginning.

On the second play after the ensuing kickoff, Bradyn Little found Clay streaking down the far sideline to a 72-yard touchdown reception to enable Quincy to retake the lead at 21-17.

Not to be outdone, Schaeffer lofted a pass over the head of Clay to Driver in the end zone from 25 yards out to put Capital City back in front with 18 seconds left, 24-21. It marked the most points Quincy had surrendered in a game this season.

That lead lasted all of 17 seconds thanks to Rice’s spectacular return.

“These guys haven’t been punched in the mouth all year,” Rick Little said. “At halftime we told them, ‘Remember who you are and what you’ve done.’ ”

The Quincy defense couldn’t get a stop to open the second half, however, with Driver taking a crossing pass over the middle and turning up field to scamper 33 yards untouched to give Capital City a 31-28 lead. He caught five passes for 122 yards and three scores.

However, it was a costly drive as the Cavaliers lost 1,000-yard rusher Jaylen Thomas, who already had run for 102 yards, to injury. 

A 15-yard scramble to the Cavalier’s 25 by Braydn Little on third and 12 set up a scoring run by Rice on the very next snap on a Statue of Liberty play to put the Blue Devils back in front, 35-31.

That’s when the Quincy defense began to stiffen.

With Capital City poised to regain the lead as the third quarter drew to a close, Schaffer and Isaiah Franklin mishandled a handoff exchange and the Blue Devils recovered at their own 4.

Facing fourth and a yard from its own 13, Quincy went for it, only to see Rice come up inches short.

“I’m sure a lot of people couldn’t believe we didn’t punt it away, but time was as important as the points,” Rick Little said. “That offense is tough to stop. We didn’t want to let them bleed the clock for eight or nine minutes and score.

“The defense made us look smart by shutting them down.”

A key play in the ensuing sequence was a third-down stop by linebacker Ryan Cashman at the 5 when it appeared running back Robert Pates had a clear path around left end. Franklin was then stuffed on fourth down to give Quincy the ball and a chance to pad its lead.

The Blue Devils methodically moved the ball down the field, with Rice providing the spark by taking a short screen pass and breaking several tackles before being brought down after a 39-yard gain in Capital City territory.

He scored six plays later from 6 yards out to give Quincy a 42-31 lead with 5:08 remaining, and the defense forced a punt on the Cavaliers’ next possession.

The Blue Devils appeared to be running out the clock when a Bradyn Little pass skipped off the outstretched hands of Tykell Hammers near the end zone and it was intercepted and returned to Capital City 45 with a little more than three minutes left.

The Cavaliers got as far as the Quincy 20 before Schaffer was stripped of the ball as he was being surrounded by three defenders in the backfield and Max Wires recovered with 2:19 to go to seal it.

Bradyn Little finished with 19 completions on 30 attempts for 299 yards, the first time he has been held below 320 passing yards this season. However, he moved into second place all-time in Illinois for career completions (629) and passing yards (9,783).

Rice’s rushing effort gives him 3,624 yards for his career, second on Quincy’s all-time list. And Hammers, despite being held to 48 yards on six receptions, now has 1,099 receiving yards for a single-season school record.

Quincy, which finished with 452 yards of offense, should be assured of a home game next week when the playoff pairings are announced Saturday night.