MONMOUTH – The cowbells, the horns, the cheers from the sideline told anyone at Monmouth College or watching via stream who was leading the Illinois 8-Man Football Association Championship on Friday.

The Amboy-LaMoile-Ohio squad scored first to amp up the already fired up crowd and it didn’t stop there (the scoring or the crowd) as the No. 4-seeded Clippers defeated No. 3 Milledgeville 42-14.

The Clippers are back-to-back state champions and have been to the last game of the season the last three falls.

“We knew coming into the game that they’re a hardnosed football team. We just had to match their physicality,” said senior Quinn Leffelman. “I think the scoreboard portrays that. I wouldn’t say that our rushing attack was able to do whatever it wanted, but coach made some good adjustments.

“It’s the same story every game, every year, we listen to our coaches, do our job, and stay disciplined.”

After both teams ended their first drives without points, Leffelman helped the Clippers erase the goose egg first as he broke through the Missiles defensive line for a 40-yard trip to the end zone with 5:34 left in the first quarter. Senior Josh McKendry ran in the two-point conversion to give Amboy an 8-0 advantage.

The Clippers took a 14-0 lead when senior Ed Fry broke loose for a 32-yard rushing score with 3:33 remaining in the first frame.

While the ground game was working for A-L-O, the defense wanted to make sure they were stopping the Missiles’ top threats in senior running back Micah Toms-Smith and junior Karter Livengood, who took over as the starting quarterback for Milledgeville in Week 8 of the season.

“We needed to stop their big plays because they survive off of those big plays,” Fry said. “Stopping those plays from happening really stopped their motivation to keep going. We knew we had to step up and be the more physical team. I think we did an awesome job.”

Amboy’s third score came from a third source as LaMoille senior Brayden Klein powered in an 8-yard run with 25.5 seconds remaining in the second quarter.

Senior quarterback and defensive back Eddie Jones helped the Clippers enter halftime with a 20-0 lead by intercepting Livengood on the last play of the first half.

“We wanted to control the line of scrimmage. We felt we could, but we knew they had two good defensive ends and they played really well throughout the game,” Amboy-LaMoille-Ohio coach Scott Payne said. “We wanted to run the ball and set up our play-action pass. I think we ran the ball well with our control of the line of scrimmage.

“All four of our backs played well. All year long, we had a three-headed monster at tail back with Brayden Klein, Ed Fry, and Josh McKendry. When you have a fullback like Quinn Leffelman to give the ball to up the middle and he’ll get you four or five yards every carry, it’s such a benefit to our offense. They’re all seniors and I’m so happy for them to go out with a state championship.

“Eddie played a phenomenal game at both positions. We know he’s a great defender in the secondary, but we couldn’t play him there every game because we needed him at quarterback. If he would have played every game on defense, he probably would have been first team all-conference.”

Milledgeville scored its first points at the end of the first possession in the third quarter as junior Spencer Nye ran in a 12-yard carry with 7:18 on the clock to cut the Clippers lead to 20-8 after Toms-Smith ran in the two-point conversion.

A-L-O answered on the next possession as Klein scored his second TD of the game. This time after a 22-yard spring at 3:28 in the third quarter for a 26-8 advantage.

“It’s once in a lifetime to win one state championship, but it’s even more special to win two. I’m for thankful,” Klein said. “It’s been nice to have the backfield we have. We have fresh legs almost every play. We understand what we needed to do, knew what to look for, and we got the job done.

“On the other side, they’ve had a lot of success in their backfield and we knew it was going to be tough defensively. We knew as long as we kept them to short yardage and read our keys, we’d be fine.”

The Missiles answered in two plays when Livengood broke away for a 46-yard run with 2:25 remaining in the third to cut the Clipper lead to 26-14.

However, the Clippers didn’t even need to run a play to retaliate as sophomore Caden Heath picked up a short kick on the kick return and returned it 51 yards to the end zone for a 34-14 lead with 2:19 in the third quarter after Jones found Klein for the two-point conversion.

The Clipper defense stifled the Missiles offense during the remainder of the state championship while A-L-O found paydirt one more time on a 10-yard run from McKendry with 2:25 left in the game. Leffelman pounded in the two-point run for the 42-14 final.

“We’ve been working really hard for this. We worked hard in the summer. We’ve worked hard at every practice. We’ve worked hard in every game,” McKendry said. I think we deserve this state championship for all of the work we’ve put in this season.

“I love this team so much. It means so much to me to come here and win again. We play great because of each other. I started crying after I scored the last touchdown. I gave Ed a hug. We’re all best friends and it feels great to win with these guys.”

Coach Payne didn’t take any credit for what happened on the field.

He gave it all to his team.

“This is a great group of kids I enjoyed coaching every day. They wanted to win a state title again and that’s what they did,” Payne said. “They wanted this game so bad. They stepped up to the challenge and played a great football game.

“I’m just extremely proud of all of them.”

Less than 24-hours later at Amboy High School for a celebration with the two trophies and Clipper fans, Jones shared the pride his coach has for the accomplishing what they wanted…back-to-back titles.

“It means a lot. To go out like this to end my senior year, it’s the best way to go out,” Jones said. “The support has been just unbelievable. We went out there, played football, and got it done the Amboy way.”