About 3 1/2 hours after the Maroons were finally out of their gear and recovering from a physical game with East St Louis in the morning, the Maroons were back at it again to tip in the 5th place bracket at the Pekin Tournament against Normal West late Thursday afternoon. The Wildcats, themselves, were coming off a blowout loss to 3A #1 Mt Carmel and were wanting to bounce back. In a game that was back and forth and saw the Wildcats hit 9 3s (including 6 in the 3rd quarter), the Maroons (12-2) survived and rallied from down 6 in the 4th to get a much needed bounce back win 54-49. 

One name was familiar in the scoring column, Trey Taylor.  He was, in a word, awesome. Another career high of 29 points on 13-18 FG to go along with 4 rebounds, and Taylor did all that while not playing a single second in the second quarter. “Trey Taylor continues to get better and better every game,” said Moline Head Coach Sean Taylor. “In a close game like this was unbelievable.” Sean even jokingly said on the postgame show to us, “I don’t know who your player of the game is but if it wasn’t him you guys are watching something different than me.” While Taylor (as well as Braden Freeman)  was sitting the 2nd quarter the Maroons deployed a unit spearheaded by their 2 freshmen Arthur Abbey and Brady Welch. They each poured in 9 points on a combined 6-10 shooting and Welch hit three shots from deep. “…we had numerous guys step up. Today Brady Welch comes in and makes three big 3’s, Arthur makes a contribution on defense…our two freshmen really helped us in this game.” Sean Taylor was thrilled how those two played, as well as some others as the Maroons stemmed the tide in the 2nd frame. “I thought (the freshmen) were doing a really good job…not only those two but Aiden Versluis did a great job.” 

The Maroons took a lead going into half only giving up 4 points in the 2nd quarter, but they had to rally after the huge 3rd quarter on offense from Normal West. “We are in man and they made 6 3’s in the 3rd quarter, it’s why you have to be offensive too. There’s a lot of good offensive players out there…we did a pretty good job of taking their run…We did a good job in the 4th quarter of getting the ball to the foul line with either Trey or Braden and then attacking the rim,” Taylor said. In the 4th the Maroons took control and got enough stops late. Taylor had 10 in the 4th to finish off his dominant performance. Moline will now take on Peoria Notre Dame for 5th place in the tournament. You can hear it live on qcsportsnet.com beginning at 12:15 p.m. Friday with the Crawford Company pregame show.

Toughness and tenacity were the watchwords on Thursday morning at Dawdy Hawkins Gym as the Moline Maroons (11-2) suffered their first loss since early December in a physical 60-51 defeat to 3A Ranked #7 East St Louis. “We just got to get a little tougher,” The Maroons head coach Sean Taylor said during the postgame show. He added, “Tougher doesn’t mean pushing guys…it means can we get open and get the ball to the guys that we want, where we want, when we want?” The Moline offense struggled to get consistency against a stifling Flyers defense, and the Flyers’ resiliency on offense getting good looks forced Moline to try to claw back from their biggest deficit of the season (12 points) in the final quarter. There were multiple opportunities for the Maroons in the 2nd half to slice into their largest deficit of the season but every time they would cut a 10 point game to 6, or an 8 point game to 4, the Flyers would respond. Robert McCline (23 points with 5 3FG) was amazing for East St Louis, as well as a well balanced offensive attack. After an abysmal 1-17 3FG shooting performance yesterday, the Flyers daggered the Maroons in the heart from deep, connecting on 8 of their 22 attempts (an over 30% jump in 3FG shooting efficiency). 

“…We made a great run to get it to 38-34 and then we turned it over 3 of the next 4 possessions. We just got to get better at that, I think we will.” Sean Taylor added during his postgame conversation with us. Sean was optimistic about his team’s effort and how hard they played all game against a tough team like the Flyers even in a loss. “I thought we played as hard as we played the whole year…we rebounded against a great offensive rebounding team, our defense was solid. We knew they were going to get some 3s and they hit some but if we can get the rebounds and not turn the ball over then we can live with those 3s.” Braden Freeman led the Maroons in scoring with 17 points (9 in the 4th) and Trey Taylor had 15. The Maroons will play the Normal West Wildcats at 3:45 in the 5th place bracket in the Pekin Tournament Thursday on qcsportsnet.com.

After a back and forth start to the game that saw the score 7-7 through the first few minutes, the Moline Maroons (11-1) used a prolonged 18-0 run that lasted nearly a full quarter to eventually lead 35-13 at the half and go on to win 62-32 over the Plainfield South Cougars in round one of the Pekin Tournament. Trey Taylor (20 points 10-12 FG, 10 rebounds) was magnificent once again as he posted his 4th straight 20 point game punctuated with his highlight coast to coast dunk near the end of the first half. The question on the day would be how the Maroons would respond after a sluggish finish to their win last Thursday over McHenry.  Coach Sean Taylor felt that they responded well. “I thought they played great.” The Maroons’ mentor said during the postgame show. “This is a hard game to play, you get a couple days off…we have lost this game a couple times, I thought the guys came out focused.” Moline was dialed in from the jump. Coach Taylor was proud of the all around effort from Vinny Adjahoungbeta (4 points, 6 rebounds) who didn’t light up the scoreboard but was a presence on defense and all over the offensive glass early. Marcus McQueen had a big 2nd quarter and finished with 14 points on an efficient 5-6 FG and 4-5 from 3FG.

The Maroons will take on a familiar foe Thursday morning – the East St. Louis Flyers.  They knocked off Washington in their first round contest, 51-48. “No matter what happens, we have 2 games and it’s going to be against 2 quality opponents. When you get to the final 8 of this tournament all 8 are good.” Tip off for Thursday’s game is slated for 10:30 a.m.  We will be LIVE at 10:15 for the Crawford Company Pregame show from Dawdy Hawkins Gym.

This is the link to the FULL COURT PRESS live stream.

Tonight’s 7:00 show, live from Riverfront Grille in Rock Island, will include:
* Breaking news about Alleman not playing football in the WB6 in 2024. We’ll read you their letter.
* Former Quad Citian & ESPN anchor Doug Kezirian will join us
* We’ll test the guys’ college football knowledge with a fun twist on Dropout

PRESENTED BY charter sponsors Godfather’s Pizza in Silvis, Crawford Company, Neil Ferrari State Farm Insurance, Wheelan-Pressly, and Hungry Hobo.  Limited additional sponsorship opportunities are available by contacting Ken Jacoby at (309) 912-5135 or ken@qcsportsnet.com.

UPDATE 12/20: In late November, Alleman sent a letter to the other schools in the Western Big 6, letting them know that the Pioneers would NOT be playing in the conference in football in 2024. QCSportsNet has obtained a copy of that letter. It will be read in its entirety, and discussed in detail, on tonight’s Full Court Press, 7:00 p.m. at Riverfront Grille in Rock Island and live on QCSportsNet.com. Alleman Coach Jeff Schmulbach would not comment on whether the Pioneers will seek to play a non-conference schedule in 2024, or remain JV-only for the second straight year. Moline, which would have played Alleman in Week 6, struck an agreement to play that week at Thornton Township, thus avoiding having an 8-game schedule for the third consecutive year.

UPDATE 12/19: Statement from Alleman Coach Jeff Schmulbach:

• The vote was 58% to 42% against
• Moline has scheduled a non-conference game in Alleman’s slot
• Statement from Alleman High School coming later today
• Schools approve pre-season scrimmages vs. other schools as an option instead of intra-squad games

Dec. 19, 2023 – In voting results released today, member high schools of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) voted 379 to 272 (58.2% to 41.8%) against a proposal to implement District Football, in which every school would be assigned an 8-team district within its classification (1A to 8A) by IHSA and would play seven of its nine games each year within that district, with the top four teams in district play making the playoffs.  79 schools abstained.  The defeat was by a similar margin to 2019, when the proposal went down, 60% to 40%, after initially passing in 2018 before the full extent of the plan was known.

After the announcement, Moline Coach Mike Morrissey told QCSportsNet, “We’re very excited about the results of the voting. It helps keep the traditional games of a great conference with natural rivalries in place. Excited about our schedule for next fall and keeping the Friday Night Lights experience the WB6 provides for our kids and community!”

Perhaps in anticipation of the proposal’s defeat, and with the prospects of Alleman playing varsity football within the Western Big 6 in 2024 uncertain, Moline has already scheduled its Week 6 game to be played at Thornton Township on Oct. 4, in the slot where the Pioneers would have been.  “We couldn’t wait around and miss out on another game for the 3rd straight season,” said Morrissey.  “Had to do what was in the best interest of our kids and program.”  And if Alleman should decide to return to playing in the WB6 in 2024?  “We signed a contract with Thornton and will honor that this fall regardless of any changes Alleman makes at the last minute,” said Morrissey.

United Township Coach Nick Welch told QCSportsNet, “Relieved that it didn’t go through. I know that everyone has their own arguments and vantage points on what’s best for their schools which is completely fair. At the end of the day the “uncertainty” of districts and lack of a clear plan are why I feel this is a good decision.”

Alleman Coach Jeff Schmulbach, Morrissey, and Welch had staked out their positions while appearing on the Nov. 29 edition of Full Court Press, QCSportsNet’s weekly live local sports talk program.  Schmulbach at the time acknowledged that perhaps no school in the state of Illinois would benefit more from District Football than Alleman, where he is hard at work building back the football program to be able to compete at the varsity level after fielding only a JV team this past Fall.

Alleman officials tell QCSN they plan to release a statement sometime today.

Schools did approve a proposal by a margin of 64% to 36% to allow football teams to conduct a pre-season scrimmage with another school.  Scrimmages would use IHSA officials and be limited to four separate 12-play segments, with no special teams play, and there would be no live contact in practice the day before or after.  Such scrimmages would take place Friday or Saturday the weekend before the start of the regular season and – if schools choose to go the scrimmage route – would replace the intra-squad scrimmages currently held, such as Moline’s Maroon & White scrimmage, Rock Island’s Red-Gold Game, and United Township’s Panther Preview.