Crowning glory: Blue Devils cap undefeated run through WB6 with league championship

QUINCY — The crown fits perfectly.

Favored to win the Western Big 6 Conference championship and never shying away from those expectations, the Quincy High School football players finished off an undefeated run to a league title Friday night, beating Geneseo 35-7 at Flinn Stadium.

It is the Blue Devils’ first WB6 championship since 2016, the sixth in program history and one that seems to be a game-changer as far as elevating the program to perennial contender and conference power.

“Going back to my sophomore year, we were middle of the pack, and then last year we get better but we weren’t quite there yet,” said senior cornerback/wide receiver Jack Mettemeyer, a three-year starter. “Now, to do it my senior year, it’s a huge accomplishment.

“I love it for the team, and I’m so happy about it.”

Generations of Blue Devils are.

Brian Spotts, a member of Quincy’s 1974 WB6 championship and a QHS Hall of Famer, spoke to the Blue Devils following Thursday’s practice and reiterated what it meant to the alumni to see this team in control of the conference race and playing for a title.

It resonated.

“For the whole program, this means the world,” QHS senior defensive lineman Ryan Mast said. “This is the stepping stone for all the things we want to accomplish. We fulfilled our promise to each other to win the conference title.”

And they accomplished something that had been a goal long before these players reached high school.

“You see other classes win titles and you want to be there with them someday,” said QHS junior quarterback Bradyn Little, who was a ballboy on the sideline for the Blue Devils’ 5-0 run to the title in 2016. “It’s really cool to see and later on be able to experience it.”

They did so by stonewalling the Maple Leafs.

First, the Blue Devils (8-0, 6-0 WB6) had to withstand a punch. Geneseo’s Jackson Reade returned the game’s opening kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown, momentarily quieting a raucous crowd of almost 2,500 fans. No one along the QHS sideline flinched.

“We were fine,” Mast said. “I kind of had a gut feeling something was going to happen on that kickoff. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s happened in the past and it hadn’t happened this year. But the way we respond to adversity is something we’ve been very good at.

“The second that kick got returned, I looked at the sideline and I just kept yelling, ‘It’s game time. We’re in this now.’ We just had that mentality to come right back.”

Quincy scored on its second offensive possession, getting a 15-yard touchdown pass from Little to Adon Byquist to tie the game at 7 with 3:50 remaining in the first quarter. Three minutes later, the game changed entirely.

Mettemeyer intercepted an A.J. Weller pass and returned it 13 yards to midfield. On the next play, Jeraius Rice Jr. found a seam between the tackles and raced 47 yards for a touchdown with 7.6 seconds remaining in the quarter. The Blue Devils had the lead for good.

“I was trailing (the wide receiver) the whole time, right on his back,” Mettemeyer said. “He threw his hand up in the air and I was like, ‘Please throw it to him.’ And he threw it to him.”

Mettemeyer appeared to have room to run, but he got tripped up just inside Geneseo territory.

“One move and I could have taken it back,” Mettemeyer said with a grin.

Rice took care of that with his big run.

“It’s a huge momentum change,” Mettemeyer said.

The Blue Devils tacked on two more touchdowns in the second quarter — a 3-yard run by Rice and a 12-yard reception by Byquist — to carry a 28-7 lead into halftime. Rice scored on an 11-yard pass from Little early in the fourth quarter to cement the victory.

Little completed 21 of 24 passes for 250 yards and three scores, while Byquist caught seven passes for 120 yards and Tykell Hammers had nine receptions for 112 yards. Rice rushed for 205 yards on 13 carries.

“After Jack’s pick, it was kind of like, ‘phewww,’” QHS coach Rick Little said, exhaling deeply. “Not that guys were playing tight, but Geneseo was doing a good job challenging us. It’s the cat-and-mouse game you get into. It’s like, ‘How are they going to play us? What are they going to take away? How are they going to stop it?’

“Those sorts of answers were important to keep us calm. And after all that, it goes back to the defense. Our defense pitches a shutout. Special teams allowed the touchdown. Our defense was dynamite.”

Geneseo (6-2, 3-2 WB6) managed just 191 total yards and averaged only 2.7 yards per carry. 

“We’ve been saying all year we need that shutout,” Mast said. “That just means the world to us to not let them score against our defense.”

It means even more to do it in what amounted to a conference title game.

“Throughout the week, and even throughout the game, I’m thinking about all sorts of teams that I coached that were right there,” Rick Little said. “For those teams, it just didn’t quite happen. It was close. It was in their grasp and it just didn’t happen.

“To get the one, and hopefully we build on this for a lot of years, but this is important to get the next one. Obviously, they don’t come easy and our kids understand that, so we’ll enjoy this and I’m really proud of them.”