Published: November 06, 2009 12:24 am         

Marshall, Casey hoping to meet in Class 2A state quarterfinals

CLARK COUNTY, ILL. — Casey and Marshall are two of the 16 teams left in the Illinois Class 2A playoffs and will be out to advance to the quarterfinals with victories Saturday afternoon.

Undefeated Casey puts its 10-0 mark on the line in a road game against 8-2 Red Bud while 9-1 Marshall is host to 9-1 Williamsville at Bush Field. Both games begin at 2 p.m. CST.

If both teams win, they would meet in a third-round contest for a spot in the semifinals but both teams face tough opponents this week.

In the first round, Marshall bested Westville 27-6 and Casey defeated Alton Marquette 42-7 in home games. The Lions and Warriors both were dominant on defense in games played on muddy fields.

• This week, Marshall goes for its 10th straight victory against a team that not only also is 9-1 but is similar in many ways. Quarterbacks for both teams key the offenses.

Taylor Duncan has passed for 1,036 yards and 16 touchdowns and rushed for 731 yards and 15 touchdowns for the Lions. Josh Gentile has passed for 1,436 yards and 18 touchdowns and rushed for 1,088 yards for Williamsville which beat Gillespie 26-0 last week.

Coach Todd Evers talked about the Bullets following Monday’s practice.

“Williamsville likes to spread it out on offense and uses the 4-4 defense … it is like looking at ourselves in a mirror with different color jerseys,” he said.

“There’s a reason teams used the spread offense. It is tough to stop. [Gentile] is an athletic quarterback. The big issue for us will be execution and minimizing mistakes,” he said.

Duncan said he and his teammates knew they could have a good year and were motivated after losing to Casey in the season opener.

“We proved one loss was not going to get us down in our next game against Mahomet-Seymour and have been rolling ever since,” said the senior.

Mahomet-Seymour had a 7-2 record and qualified for the Class 4A playoffs.

Duncan had one touchdown pass to brother Jacob for 41 yards to give the Lions a lead they never lost against Westville and Andre Strohm went 66 yards for a touchdown to put Marshall up 14-6 after the Tigers scored their only touchdown.

Strohm has rushed for nearly 1,000 yards and scored 10 times — nine rushing touchdowns and one pass reception.

Tyler Bishop, like Duncan, has been on the varsity four years. He plays left tackle on offense and is a regular on the defensive line. He’s been in on 60 tackles and has six sacks this season.

“We’ve been working hard and getting better every week. If we come out and [play our game] Saturday, we can keep winning,” he said.

• Casey will leave Clark County early Saturday morning to make the long trip to play Red Bud, a team the Warriors have faced previously in the playoffs.

The Muskeeteers’ two defeats have come against Central 27-20 and Freeburg 49-41. They defeated Chester 40-16 last week.

Jake Huffman is the quarterback who has passed for 1,913 yards and 23 touchdowns and rushed for 873 and 14 touchdowns. Tyler Hubert also has rushed for 708 yards.

“Huffman runs and throws the football extremely well and has [good] receivers. We played Red Bud a couple years ago and was a very hard team to run against then. Fortunately . . we were able to win 17-0,” said coach Keith Sinclair.

In going back and looking at the game sheets, he said Casey had negative yardage in several cases that day. He expects Red Bud to present the same challenges for his team on Saturday.

“Red Bud’s defense is very aggressive and [Huffman] can hurt you throwing or running. We’ll have to stop him and not give up big plays. Against Chester, he had scoring passes of 40-some and 70-some yards and two of 60-some,” said the coach.

“We will have to not give up the big plays and make the most of our scoring drives. A key will be defensive adjustments. Huffman is 6-foot-2 and over 200 pounds. A kid who can run that fast and throw that far usually won’t be downed by one player. And our defensive secondary will have to be prepared for the vertical passes,” said Sinclair.

He noted that Freeburg — one of the teams to beat Red Bud — upset Mt. Zion by nine points in the playoffs last week.

Sinclair said the Warriors got a turnover early against Alton Marquette to get good field position. “We ran the ball and passed very well considering the conditions,” said Sinclair. Billy Seeley ran for two scores and Brett Livvix passed for two touchdowns.

For the year, Livvix has passed for 1,224 yards and 21 touchdowns with just one interception. Seeley has rushed for 863 yards and 15 touchdowns.

Seth Brewer has caught 28 passes for 550 yards and Chris Unzicker has 27 receptions for 341 yards.

Casey has outscored opponents 440 to 40.