Slow and steady wins the race, but what about flashy plays? They don’t always have to be, but when Batavia needed a winning play, senior quarterback Ryan Boe was there.
No series of plays exemplified that better than the two that iced Friday night’s game.
Boe converted third-and-one with a 3-yard run, then on the next play had a 12-yard run. He could have raced to the end zone but instead slid down and knelt three times to end it.
“That’s just coaching,” Boe said. “We always talk about what to do in certain spots. Once I looked over and saw I was past that marker, go down and know we can take a knee.
“There was no need to risk anything.”
The North Dakota State-bound Boe did everything and anything, accounting for all three touchdowns as Batavia battled to a thrilling 21-18 DuKane Conference victory at Geneva.
Boe had TD runs of 3 and 27 yards for Batavia (5-1, 4-0) and threw a 23-yard TD pass to Luke Alwin. He completed 13 of 22 passes for 135 yards and added 107 yards on 15 carries. Charlie Whelpley also ran for 90 yards.
Junior quarterback Nate Stempowski kept Geneva (5-1, 3-1) in the game with a gritty performance, running for 86 yards and contributing TD runs of 1 and 4 yards.
Afterward, Batavia coach Dennis Piron said Boe’s offseason work with offensive coordinator/quarterback coach Sean Anderson serves him well in key situations.
“He put in a tremendous amount of work from junior to senior year with coach Anderson,” Piron said of Boe. “The two of them watched film every single day.
“They talk about situations when they install. They’re on the same page. The two of them together get it. They know what they’re looking for. They know what to do.”
Boe’s third TD gave the Bulldogs a 21-10 lead with 9:58 left in the fourth quarter, but Geneva didn’t back down. A 10-play, 59-yard drive culminated in Stempowski’s 4-yard TD run and a 2-point conversion.
The Vikings couldn’t recover the ensuing onside kick, however, and burned their final two timeouts. That allowed Boe to convert those two first downs to seal the win.
“We have a good football team,” Geneva coach Boone Thorgesen said. “We have a bunch of good kids. One thing I knew we were going to do was come back in the second half and correct a few things and play really hard.
“We showed a lot of grit and resolve, and I love that for our football team. I’m very pleased with that — obviously not the outcome, but we played a great football team in Batavia.”
It was Batavia’s 13th straight win over Geneva in a rivalry that stretches back to 1913. The past seven of those games before Friday featured 14 total points for Geneva.
That gap narrowed significantly, but Boe said the Bulldogs were prepared for it.
“This is a gritty game,” Boe said. “We knew they were going to be good this year. This is one of their years. We knew that from the start. Being able to go head to head like that is really good for us.
“These are the type of teams we’re going to face in the playoffs.”
On top of that, Boe relishes the opportunity to have the ball in his hands in the biggest moments.
“It’s really fun,” Boe said. “All the guys around me help make that happen. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
And Piron confirmed there’s nobody he would rather ride with than Boe.
“I’m glad he’s on our team,” Piron said. “He’s just a great young man, and maybe one of the best players in the state of Illinois, one of the best quarterbacks in the state of Illinois.
“I’d take him. I wouldn’t take anybody else.”
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.