6A Football; Richwoods upends Crete-Monee, 51-36

Updated: November 5, 2011 6:09PM

PEORIA — It was 44-6 at one point, and Crete-Monee had the 6.

Then the Warriors shook off the first 32 minutes, 9 seconds of their Class 6A second round game with Richwoods, and went to work.

They didn’t beat Richwoods, but they made the Knights sweat, cutting the gap to 16 points and then 15 before the clock ran out and Richwoods escaped with a 51-36 victory before about 2,800 fans at Enders Field.

“You showed courage,” Crete-Monee coach Jerry Verde said to his squad. “You turned a laugher into a game.”

True enough. But, at least for a little while, Verde and his players will think more of the single loss of the season that ended it than the 10 straight victories preceding it.

“The first half we came out dry, sleeping, not ready to play,” receiver/defensive back LaQuan Treadwell said. “They came up and made plays (on defense), and ran the ball up and down the field.”

Treadwell was the go-to receiver for junior Marcus Terrell, with 13 receptions for 157 yards and two touchdowns (the last a 61-yarder) and two two-point conversions.

Terrell’s 30-of-49 reading for 354 yards highlighted the Warriors’ attack, which outgained Richwoods 479-331. But the Knights (8-3) were unstoppable in the first half, and Kendrick Foster was unstoppable, period. He had 29 carries for 168 yards, two rushing touchdowns plus a 69-yard receiving score.

“We had clean shots at him, kids in position to make plays, and he was gone,” Verde said.

Because he was, so is the season. Crete-Monee closes 10-1.

“We weren’t fulfilling our assignments,” said senior John Fasel, knocked out of the game in the fourth quarter with a dislocated right elbow. “It wasn’t that they were running over us.”

Running away did the job instead.

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