A victory, and the Galesburg Silver Streaks would be back to the .500 mark overall, back to .500 in the Western Big 6 Conference, with a puncher’s chance of making the Illinois state high school football playoffs from there. A loss, and the Streaks’ playoff window would be smaller than one on a birdhouse.
Van Dyke Field will be the setting for the Silver Streaks’ attempt to even their season record at 3-3 on Friday, Oct. 3, in Week 6 of the high school football season.
Galesburg’s season has been a pogo stick so far. A big loss in Week 1, big win in Week 2, big loss in Week 3, big win in Week 4 and another big loss at Sterling last week. Can coach Shawn Hickey’s team get back to equilibrium?
“Hopefully, we’re hungry, with a home game and a chance to get back on the winning side against Geneseo,” Hickey said. “We’re gonna have to fight for everything. We’ve been on the road the last couple weeks, so it’ll be fun to be back home. I think our guys are ready to go.”
Geneseo (3-2, 2-1) is coming off probably its best win of the season, a 36-33 triumph over East Moline United. The Green Machine unleashed their usual strong running game, with junior Mark Nelms running 22 times for 84 yards and two touchdowns, and quarterback Jackson McAvoy running for 99 yards on 19 carries.
“We really feel that it’s going to be one of those games where we have to come out and establish the line of scrimmage on both sides,” Geneseo coach Matt Furlong said. “Offensively, we’ve got to get the run going early and often and kind of establish that. Defensively, we need to control their run game. They ran on us for a lot of yards last year.”
The Green Machine still won that game against the Silver Streaks, 28-21, but it’s already been established that this Galesburg team is better than last year’s 1-8 club. Hickey is still trying to find consistency, however. One week, the offense is great, and the next, it’s getting shut out. It is from the defense, though, where Hickey said his team needs more. The Streaks have allowed 195 points in five games (39 per game).
Hickey said he had to go further down on his defensive depth chart than planned against Sterling, and it showed.
“We had to go to a five-man box. We were a victim of circumstance and there wasn’t much we could do about it,” Hickey said. “Once we got down early, and didn’t punch the ball in a couple times when we could have, we just kind of let down. If the offense had gotten some early points, it could have fired up the defense. Well, we didn’t get the points and the defense didn’t get fired up.”
Streaks sophomore quarterback Grady Hickey has had his ups and downs, like the team, but comes into Friday with a 58.3% completion rate (56-for-96, 739 yards and four touchdown passes).
The Streaks (2-3, 1-2) have been shut out twice, but put up 112 points in the other three.
“That shows they’re capable on any given night,” Furlong said. “They’re gonna be fired up, at home, so it’ll be a stiff challenge for us.”
This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Galesburg football gets make-or-break Week 6 test vs. Geneseo in playoff quest
Reporting by Adrian Dater / Galesburg Register-Mail
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