High five: Rice cooks Sterling with five TD’s as QHS stays unbeaten

QUINCY – It was a Senior Night to remember.

Quincy High needed just 13 plays to score four touchdowns in the opening 7 minutes, 23 seconds and led by 50 points at halftime Friday night in rolling to an emphatic 63-6 victory over Sterling in a Western Big 6 Conference game at Flinn Stadium.

Running back Jeraius Rice Jr. scored five touchdowns – four rushing and one receiving – on 10 offensive touches while racking up 253 all-purpose yards. And quarterback Bradyn Little threw for 359 yards and three scores and added a rushing touchdown as the Blue Devils (7-0, 5-0 WB6) clinched at least a share of their second straight league title.

Quincy, ranked second behind Downers Grove North in this week’s Class 7A poll, has now won 19 straight regular season games and 14 leagues games in a row. It can wrap up the conference championship by beating Geneseo (4-3, 1-3 WB6) on the road next week.

Moreover, the Blue Devils could find themselves atop of the Associated Press 7A poll for the first time in school history after unbeaten LaGrange Lyons, ranked sixth in Class 8A, scored 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter Friday night to topple Downers Grove North, 21-20.

“We didn’t let Senior Night distract us,” said Rice, the only Blue Devil to score in every game this season and now has a team-leading 20 touchdowns. “We wanted to send a message that we’re here and we’re still coming. We know what our dream is, and that’s to win the conference and go even further than we
did last year.”

Sterling was the last team to beat Quincy during the regular season, a 34-28 overtime decision at Flinn Stadium on Sept. 30, 2022. And the Golden Warriors, who came in unbeaten in three WB6 games, gave the Blue Devils their toughest regular-season test a year ago, rallying from a 21-point first-half deficit and nearly tying to score in the waning minutes before falling 35-33.

This time, Quincy put its foot on the gas and never let up. It rolled up 454 of its 595 offensive yards in the first half in an impressive display to take an insurmountable 56-6 lead to induce a running clock in the second half when both teams pulled their starters.

The 63 points was the most it had scored since beating United Township 63-27 in Week 5 last season.

“We play them tough every year and we wanted to show them that it’s not going to be a close game, that we were going to dominate by being better on offense, defense and special teams,” said wide receiver Caeden Johannessen, who hauled in an acrobatic 30-yard touchdown pass from Little on the first play of the second quarter. “We came out, played our best and showed everybody what we can do.”

After Rice returned the opening kickoff 41 yards to the Sterling 42, he took a short pass from Little and raced down the sideline to the 10 before being driven out of bounds. On the next play, Little found Tykell Hammers in the back corner of the end zone for a 7-0 lead just 33 seconds into the game.

A bad snap on a punt attempt then set Quincy up on the Sterling 29, and Rice scored from 7 yards out four plays later with less than two minutes elapsed to make it 14-0. Little followed with a 1-yard scoring run at the 6:21 mark for a 21-0 lead.

“We have a lot of respect (for Sterling), so, I think because of that, our guys are super focused,” Quincy coach Rick Little said. “We got up 21-to-nothing on them last year and all of a sudden, they climb back. And throughout the game, I think that resonated with our guys.”

There was no comeback this time.

On the Blue Devils’ fourth possession, Rice took a short pass in the right flat from Bradyn Little, juked a couple would-be tacklers and outraced defenders down the near sideline for an 80-yard score with 4:37 remaining in the first quarter.

“I just refuse to go down,” said Rice, who caught four passes for 129 yards and rushed six times for 83 yards. “I want to score every time I touch the ball.”

Johannessen ducked under a defender to make a diving touchdown grab at the pylon to open the second period. It came one play after Bradyn Little connected with Hammers on a 35-yard completion. Hammers had seven receptions for 123 yards, his sixth-straight 100-yard game.

“I had to come back for the ball,” said Johannessen, who finished with six catches for 92 yards. “He played great defense; I just made a better catch.”

Rice added touchdown runs of 19, 2 and 30 yards in the second quarter. Sterling’s only points came on 37- and 47-yard field goals by Ryan Gebhardt. The Golden Warriors (4-3, 3-1 WB6) were limited to 87 yards of total offense in the first half and 130 overall.

The only scoring in the second half came on a 60-yard pass from Sawyer Harshbarger to Cole Burgess with 4:50 left. Quincy has outscored its five league opponents 248-41 and has yet to be held below 40 points in any game this season.

It was another milestone night for Bradyn Little. He now has 9,060 career passing yards to move into third place all-time in Illinois high school history. His 19 completions (on 25 attempts) give him 589 for his career, good for sixth best in state annals.

After Geneseo, Quincy closes the regular season against Capital City in Jefferson City, Mo. Victories in both games will give the Blue Devils back-to-back undefeated regular seasons and guarantee Friday night was not their last appearance at Flinn Stadium.

“Our goal is definitely to play here again,” Hammers said. “If we keep playing the way we’re playing right now, we’ll definitely be playing back at home. But we have a bigger goal ahead, which is trying to get that state championship.”

Friday’s Scores
Quincy 63, Sterling 6
Moline 28, United Township 14
Rock Island 13, Galesburg 6
Geneseo 55, Thornridge 7

Standings
Quincy 5-0, 7-0
Moline 3-1, 5-2
Sterling 3-1, 4-3
United Township 2-3, 3-4
Geneseo 1-3, 4-3
Rock Island 1-3, 1-6
Galesburg 0-4, 1-6