Red Devils ride Piccatto to first win
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| Kewanee spent the night trying to catch Hall’s Landon Piccatto, who rushed for 344 yards and four touchdowns. (BCR photo/Kevin Hieronymus) |
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SPRING VALLEY —Longtime Hall assistant coach Steve Smith had a little explaining to do when he finally got his chance to belt out his "Whose King of Rock and Roll" lyrics to the Hall Red Devils. They hadn't seen it since last year, but they all relished the moment.
Smith and the Red Devils gang got to pay homage to Nesti Stadium namesake Richard Nesti, the legendary late Hall football coach and beloved King of Rock Roll with a 48-14 win on Senior Night Friday over Kewanee, breaking out in a big way for their first win of the season.
"Yeah, we knew it. We did it once last year. We knew what it was," said senior running back Landon Piccatto. "That's what you're striving for, especially to get Mr. Smith to do the King of Rock and Roll. It's upsetting that's the only time we've done it this year, but at least we did it once."
There's no doubt who was the King of Rock Roll for Hall Friday. Piccatto racked up 344-yards rushing on 27 attempts with four touchdowns including runs of 60, 52 and 17.
He put all back on the Hall lineman, the Hog Soldiers, who honored Smith by depositing their clods of Nesti Stadium turf at the feet of Smith after each Hall touchdown.
"It's all the line. Without them, I wouldn't have any. It's 344 for the line, not for me," Piccatto said.
"Landon had a great night. He ran well on Senior Night. I kind of expected something out of him tonight. he gave us a heckuva effort," Hall coach Randy Tieman said.
Both Piccatto and Tieman relished the Hall victory, even if it came much later than they would have liked.
"It's nice especially senior year. First home win in two years, especially having a good game with these guys, it's really nice to get the W," Piccatto said.
"It feels great to just get it done. Been waiting all season for it. Thought it would have come a little earliier than this. I guess we got the monkey off our backs," said Tieman, who notched his first win as the Hall head coach in his first year.
Hall took a 20-0 first quarter lead with two scores by Piccatto and a one-yarder by Andrew Kerr.
Chris Waca's Boilermakers battled back to 20-12 at halftime, including a 69-yard TD strike from Washburn to Taylor.
Kewanee answered Kerr's second score of the night to close within 27-18 late in the thrid quarter, but Piccatto wasn't done quite yet. He romped 60 yards to paydirt with 35.8 left in the thrid to make it 34-18. He added a 2-yard score midway through the fourth
Alex Olivares capped the night with a 1-yard score with under two minutes to play.
Notes: The Red Demons also won big 39-18 to mprove to 6-2 on scores by Matt Krolak, AJ Gaeta, Grant Hill, Cole Elliott, Chris Hammons and Jake Merkel. Hall will close the season at Riverdale next week. ... Friday's game was the first meeting between the former NCIC rivals since 2009. Kewanee joined the Big Rivers Conference in 2010 and Hall followed this year.
