What is better than having a dominant win at home and it being the Homecoming game?

That’s exactly what the Minooka varsity football team did. Minooka defeated Romeoville 49-6 at home on Sept. 10, making it 2 wins and 1 loss to start their season.

“I’m confident at where we are. We’re getting better each and every day,”  varsity head coach Matt Harding said. “Some of our kids started slow at week one cause we had a lot of young players but obviously we’re growing each and every week and fixing the mistakes that we made from week one.” 

After having a tough loss in week one against Bolingbrook 52-28, Minooka won week two against Joliet West and week three against Romeoville.

“We have four tough games ahead of us, and we’re going to be really working at it every week every day, and we’re just going to get better and I feel like we’re going to be a nice playoff team,” wide receiver Malik Armstrong said. 

Armstrong, a senior, had a great game against Romeoville. Armstrong managed to pull 6 catches getting 166 receiving yards (52 being his longest catch) and 2 touchdowns. He also managed to get two more rushing touchdowns. 

Another player that was outstanding on the field was junior Gavin Dooley, the starting quarterback for Minooka. Dooley made 10 completed passes out of 14 with 230 passing yards and 3 touchdowns (52 being his longest completed pass). 

“I think me and my wide receivers finally clicked, found the right timing for everything,” Dooley said. “Malik and I are finally on the same page. I fully trust my wide receivers and I think they played a huge role on winning that game (Romeoville).”

Minooka’s offense had a dominant start in the first quarter, pulling 27 points. Defense had a major role as well, holding Romeoville scoreless.

Minooka then showed the same dominance at the second quarter getting 16 more points and the defense holding them to 0 again, making it 43-0 in total for the first half. 

After the first half, it was more of a defensive ball game. Both teams got held to 0 points.

Then came the final quarter and Romeoville finally managed to get their first touchdown and also held Minooka to only 6 points. At the end, Minooka came out victorious 49-6. 

There is no question that it wasn’t only the offense for Minooka that won them the game but the defense, too, after holding them to only 6 points.