The Galesburg Silver Streaks football team battled back Friday night at Vandyke Field after trailing the entire game against the Dunlap Eagles — just 7-0 into the final late stages of the fourth quarter, when the Streaks engineered a scoring drive that culminated in a Tristan Legate seven-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Carl with 29 seconds to go. But, down 7-6, the Streaks elected to go for two to win the game, and the running play got stopped short of the end zone, resulting in the Streaks losing the 2021 season opener 7-6. It was Derek Blackwell’s first game as head coach for the Streaks.
It was an absolute defensive battle between the two teams. Dunlap scored on its opening possession, a 12-play scoring drive. The Streaks were getting backed up on Dunlap’s second offensive possession, and then shut that drive down deep in the red zone. Dunlap lost yardage on the last two plays.
From that point on, the Streaks defense was solid and played tough. How solid were they? Galesburg had one offensive snap the entire third quarter. After halftime, Dunlap had the ball and put together a possession drive that didn’t culminate in any points, but they took nine and half minutes off the clock. The Streaks on their first offensive possession fumbled the ball, then Dunlap had the ball the rest of the third quarter. And, despite all of that, the Streaks defense held tight throughout the game. It gave up only seven points; unfortunately, that was enough in the opener for Dunlap to win it by one.
Aaron Carl was our Dave’s Autobody Crunch Time Player of the Game, based on that very difficult catch in traffic for that touchdown that gave the Streaks the chance to win it at the end of the game.
The Silver Streaks Freshmen lost 30-14 in their opener.
Next up for the Silver Streaks is another Mid-Illini Conference opponent, next Friday night on the road against Morton, before Western Big 6 Conference play begins the following week. You can hear next Friday night’s game starting at 7pm on WGIL, WGIL.com, and WGIL on the TuneIn Radio app.
Click play to listen to the game broadcast: