Normal Community HS football team advances to second round of IHSA playoffs
NORMAL, Ill. — In Class 7A IHSA Football Playoffs, Normal Community High School Ironmen made a two-and-a-half-hour trip north to Hononegah High School in Rockton, IL. Honenega was first to score a touchdown fairly early in the first quarter, but NCHS answered with one of their own a few minutes later. The Ironmen looked solid all around with a balanced effort by both offense and defense and it was a true team effort with multiple players leading the way to a 44-13 Ironman victory.
Sophomore quarterback Kyle Beaty showed the poise of an upper-classman as he threw 255 total passing yards to his teammates resulting in five of the team’s six touchdowns. Elliott Oliver was on the receiving end of three of those and led the way for the receivers grabbing 110 yards. Beaty also found Zach Ferrante and Ivoreon Austin resulting in a touchdown a piece. And Cam Thierry ran the 6th one in.
Also supporting the offensive effort, Tommy Davis advanced the ball rushing 53 yards in 11 attempts with Chris Taylor and Cam Thierry adding 26 rushing yards a piece.
Ryan Millmore went 6 for 6 on extra points after touchdowns and the other two Normal Community points came from a safety as a punt bounced through the back of the end zone late in the 1st quarter.
Defensively, Dexter Niekamp led the way with 7 tackles and Cooper Caraway chimed in with 6 of his own with several others jumping in on the defensive action.
Normal Community moves to 7-3 and has now won six straight games after going 1-3 to start the year. The Ironmen meet No. 7 ranked Pekin who is 10-0 and shooting for a chance at school history. No Pekin football team has ever won 11 games in a season and the last time the Dragons won 10 was in 1995. The Ironmen plan to put a stop to that on the Ironmen home field in the second round next Friday at 7pm.
This is an unedited user writing submission. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Best Version Media or its employees.
