QND continues to finish season with flourish, buries Soldan with first-quarter TD flurry

QUINCY — The playoff hopes might be slim and the likelihood of the season ending in one week may be setting in, but the Quincy Notre Dame football team continues to play as if there’s plenty more at stake.

For the second consecutive week, the Raiders dominated the opponent in front of them. QND scored five touchdowns in the first seven minutes of Friday night’s 55-0 homecoming win over visiting St. Louis Soldan at Advance Physical Therapy Field.

“The way that our guys prepare, I’ll give them a lot of credit,” Raiders head coach Jack Cornell said. “It doesn’t matter who the opponent is, they want to win. Winning is important to them. They understand how to handle their business when they come to work during the week.”

QND (3-5) has won back-to-back games for the first time this season and handed the Tigers their 11th straight loss. 

Quincy Notre Dame senior lineman Jackson Meyer said they tossed aside the fact Soldan (0-8) was winless and knew they had to take care of business.

“You can’t ever take anything lightly. If you do, that’s when you get caught in a trap. You have to take everything seriously every week,” Meyer said. “We preach it every time, you’ve got to take every rep seriously. Champions take everything seriously.”

The Raiders controlled the tempo from the outset. 

Soldan went three and out on its first drive, and QND junior linebacker Taylin Scott blocked the punt and recovered the ball at the Tigers’ 4-yard line. On the next play, junior running back Ivan Hun scored from 4 yards out to give the Raiders a 6-0 lead.

Scott recovered a fumble on Soldan’s ensuing play from scrimmage, and moments later sophomore quarterback Hunter Schuckman connected with senior wide receiver Evan Goestenkors in the back of the end zone for a 16-yard touchdown increasing the Raiders’ lead to 13-0 less than three minutes into the opening quarter.

“It’s important to start strong. Coach Cornell preached to us not to play down to their level and we just wanted to come out firing no matter who they are,” senior all-purpose back Reese Frericks said.

The one-sided affair continued three minutes later when Scott recovered the Tigers’ botched punt attempt and raced into the end zone as QND’s advantage swelled to 20-0. The Raiders added two more touchdowns — a 55-yard pick-six from junior safety Wyatt Mueller and a 5-yard run by Frericks — and the lead ballooned to 34-0 by the end of the first quarter.

“We want to perform in all three phases, and I think these guys did that,” Cornell said. “We were able to build off last week and we’ve been making strides as the years gone on. Everything just started to click last week, and we carried it back into this week.”

Goestenkors said the Raiders are proving to the outsiders they are a different team than the one that lost its first three games and won just one of its first six contests.

“It wasn’t a great start and the schedule was really tough,” Goestenkors said. “I think we are showing everyone that we’re not that 0-3 team that we were.”

QND tacked on another touchdown in the second quarter on a 39-yard touchdown pass from Schuckman to junior wideout Joseph Doellman and led 41-0 at halftime. The second half started with a 75-yard kickoff return for a touchdown from senior Aiden Klauser, and senior Gabe Terstriep tacked on a 5-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.

The Raiders only ran 22 offensive plays for 196 yards and the defense was rarely threatened.

“Defense getting shutouts is always fun to see,” Meyer said. “They’re playing great and they’re going to keep playing great.”

QND’s win mathematically kept them in the postseason chase. They must beat John Burroughs (Mo.) at home next week and get some help to earn a spot in the Class 2A playoffs. Four-win teams playing beyond the regular season isn’t unprecedented. Buffalo Grove accomplished the feat last fall in Class 7A.

“We’re locked in because we have hope,” Frericks said.

Cornell is cautiously optimistic.

“One of the fortunate things about the schedule we play is we play a lot of really good football teams that have a lot of really good records,” Cornell said. “It’s in God’s hands. Whatever his will is, that’s what’s going to happen. All we can do is control what we can control. We’re moving forward as if this is the last game ahead of us. We’re going to enjoy it, and if we get to play beyond game No. 9, that would be great.”