FLANAGAN – After losing in Week 5 for the first time since the Illinois 8-Man Football Association championship in 2022, the Amboy-LaMoille-Ohio football team was hungry to get back on track.

The offense and the defense both ate as the Clippers defeated 8-Man West Conference foe Flanagan-Cornell-Woodland 46-14 on Friday, Oct. 4 at Flanagan.

“The kids were really excited to get out there and they played a really good football game on both sides of the ball,” Clippers coach Scott Payne said. “It’s always nice when you can go on the road and come back with a victory. Like we always do, we ran the football. We did a good job of running and setting up our play-action pass like we try to do pretty much every game.

“Defensively, we played really well up front. We did a good job of stopping their pass game and shutting their run game down. Winning the field-position battle helped out a lot.”

Senior Josh McKenry scored three touchdowns and gained 128 yards on eight attempts. For the year, he has 15 rushing TDs and close to 900 yards.

Classmate Brayden Klein found the end zone twice on four carries and 65 yards, and fellow senior Quinn Leffelman picked up 52 yards on 10 attempts.

In the air, senior quarterback Eddie Jones was 4-of-5 for 94 yards and a touchdown to senior tight end Caleb Yanos.

“One of the biggest things I think the kids understand after the Week 5 loss to Ridgeview is that we can’t make mental mistakes like we did,” Payne said. “We worked extra hard on understanding the fronts. The kids did a great job of recognizing it on the offensive line.”

“We have our best games ahead of us still. When you have four seniors you can get the football to between Ed Fry, Josh McKendry, Brayden Klein, and Quinn Leffelman, there isn’t enough carries to go around. Each one of them brings a different element to the game.”

Defensively, Klein was moved to defensive back from linebacker to guard Flanagan’s top receiver who has built a reputation for making big plays this season.

With Klein, Jones, and junior Cody Winn, who had two interceptions, in the backfield, the Clippers (5-1, 5-1 West) were able to clip the Falcons (4-2, 4-2 West).

“We went with a three-man front to put some more speed on the field. We had a feeling Flanagan was going to try to throw on us,” Payne said. “They did try in the first half. We told the kids, ‘Keep everything in front. We’ll give up the five-, six-, seven-yard completions. We just can’t give up anything over top.’ Our players did a very good job of that Friday night.”

Next up, is Peoria Heights at home for a Week 6 conference matchup at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1 at Amboy.

“Each one of our last three regular season opponents bring their own problem for us,” Payne said. “It feels like we haven’t had a home game in six weeks siince we’ve been on the road for the last three games. It’s going to be nice to be at home at The Harbor on Friday night.”