High-powered Rochester just too much for Manteno

ROCHESTER — For Manteno to earn a place in the Class 4A quarterfinals, the Panthers were going to need to play with extreme precision.

The Panthers did show some moments of precision. But when the opponents on the other side of the field has a master of precision under center in Oklahoma State-bound quarterback Wes Lunt, moments weren’t enough.

The high-powered hosts slowly picked away at the plucky Panthers and emerged with a 42-28 victory on Saturday to push them into next weekend’s third round of play. They will host to Bishop McNamara, a 38-6 winner over Prairie Central.

“They are just a really good football team,” Manteno wide receiver J.J. Witherow said. “Our offense played really well, but we made a few mistakes and had a few plays we’d like to have back.”

Manteno employed a risky defensive philosophy that basically dared the Rockets (9-2) to run the ball. Rochester complied and seemed poised to leave Lunt’s arsenal of passing skills docked for the time being.

But a costly fumble on a promising run-based drive kept Rochester from scoring, and Manteno marched down the field and scored on a time-consuming, patient 13-play drive. It ended with a 9-yard TD strike from Ryan Sample to Witherow.

Things looked even better for Manteno after it quickly forced a Rochester punt (the only punt for either team), and, although the next Manteno drive didn’t net points, it ate up almost the rest of the first quarter.

Lunt must have been tired of watching so much football being played without him. After a short Garret Dooley run, Lunt found his favorite target, Zach Grant, on a short crossing pattern and the elusive Grant did the rest, avoiding numerous Manteno tacklers and scoring on a 64-yard catch and run just seconds before the close of the first quarter.

“They went three down lineman and eight deep which meant we were going to have to run the ball a little bit more than we usually do,” Lunt said. “They did a really nice job with it. It was a challenge.”

But tied at six, Manteno was right in the thick of things.

It only took moments for their prospects to change at the beginning of the second quarter. Dooley picked off a Sample pass and raced in for a 31-yard touchdown.

Manteno (9-2) didn’t have much more success on its next attempt either, going just three plays before Sample was picked again.

Lunt threw a 20-yard bullet to Grant to set up a 4-yard plow from Dooley. A 2-point conversion put Rochester in front 21-6. It scored two touchdowns in less than three minutes.

“We made some mistakes, but I thought our guys played extremely hard,” Manteno coach R.J. Haines said. “The ball didn’t bounce our way a few times when we needed it to.”

Manteno regrouped to close within 21-14 at half as Witherow made a fantastic snag off a 36-yard touchdown pass from Sample.

The momentum kept going for the Panthers. They took the opening drive of the third quarter, and Witherow and Sample hooked up again to tie the score at 21.

But then Lunt showed off the skills that landed him a Division I scholarship. He began a string of 13-consecutive completions which led to Dooley’s second touchdown of the game.

“This could have been a trap game for us,” Rochester coach Derek Leonard said. “They played very hard, and they played inspired. But that’s how good Wes and those guys are, when we needed big plays we got them.”

After Rochester picked off yet another pass, Lunt completed six more passes to set up Dooley’s third score of the day from 2 yards out.

Refusing to relent, Manteno got back to within one score quickly. A sensational grab from Witherow, who finished with 13 catches for 186 yards, got Manteno down to the 1-yard line. Connor Stroud bulled his way in from there to pull Manteno within 35-28.

Manteno got a defensive stop, but when a apparent pass interference call went uncalled, the Panthers couldn’t get any traction and quickly turned the ball over on downs.

“We were right there a couple of times, but I put that more on them doing the job than anything else,” Haines said. “This is just a first-class operation that they have here.”

Dooley pushed his way down the field before scoring for the fourth time on a 13-yard run to seal the victory for the Rochester.

Manteno’s team, and the entire community, continue to grieve the tragic loss of assistant coach and head wrestling coach Cory Blanchette, who was killed while jogging on Tuesday. Both Rochester and Manteno recognized a moment of silence and wore helmet decals commemorating Blanchette.

“Our kids were going to come out here, with the character that they have, they were going to come out and play, they weren’t going to feel sorry for themselves,” Haines said.

“Once the game got going, things settled into more of a normal state. I’m proud of the way we handled ourselves.”