LaSalle-Peru (LaSalle, Ill.) severed a 29-game football losing streak against rival Geneseo on Oct. 9 with a spine-tingling 38-36 victory as senior Jake Steele kicked a wobbly 25-yard field goal with three seconds left.
The Cavaliers, who now trail 29-3, in the series, had lost three very close games to Geneseo during the previous two years. The Cavaliers’ last win had been in 1919, but the series was not resumed until 1981.
“There is a huge passion for football here,” LaSalle-Peru coach Joe Sassano said. “One of the things you always hear is ‘When are we going to beat Geneseo?’ You keep knocking on that rock and sometimes it’s going to crack. It was huge for this community. We’ve kind of put that ghost to rest.”
LaSalle News-Tribune writer Jim Cogdal, who covered the game, is a LaSalle-Peru graduate who has followed the series closely.
“To me it was very frustrating,” Cogdal conceded. “It was kind of like being a Chicago Cubs fan all over. No matter how well LaSalle-Peru played for three quarters, all the odds were against them. The kid who covered last year’s game had his story already written (in his head) at halftime (with the Cavaliers up 17-6).”
The huge victory enabled LaSalle-Peru, which has a 6-1 record, to move into the No. 10 position in the Class 5A Associated Press state rankings.
Geneseo, which has made the state playoffs a record 34 times in 36 years, is no slouch, having posted 47 consecutive winning seasons.
Coach Larry Johnsen called it “a good, hard-hitting game. We have a good relationship with them. Obviously, we’re disappointed. The sun came up the next day, so we’re moving on.”
Unfortunately, the Green Wave can not move on this week, because Friday night’s opponent, Ottawa, is out of action due to a devastating teachers’ strike.
The good news is that two of Geneseo’s players are coming to the LaSalle-Peru game and will stay overnight with quarterback Sam Renk in what coach Sassano calls a “class rivalry.”
