Making their first IHSA football postseason appearance since 2015, the United Red Storm on Saturday battled all the way before falling to the host Iroquois West Raiders, 35-26.
The Red Storm grabbed a 6-0 lead in the first quarter on an 89-yard scoring pass from Aiden Parkins to Abel Wilson, and then tied the game at 14 with 4:56 left in the second quarter on a 61-yard pass from Parkins to Cormaic Flynn, who also caught the two-point conversion pass.
Iroquois West, which improved its record to 8-2 and will play Abingdon-Avon (9-1) in the second round, answered Flynn’s touchdown by scoring with 1:54 to play in the first half for a 21-14 lead after 24 minutes of play.
United (6-4) cut the Raider lead to 21-20 early in the third quarter on a 22-yard catch and run by Wilson, but that’s as close as the Red Storm would get the rest of the way.
Iroquois West’s Trystyn Schact, who carried 32 times for 311 yards, scored his second touchdown on a 36-yard run with 5:26 left in the third quarter. His 56-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter put the final points on the board for the Raiders.
Flynn’s 3-yard touchdown with 1:26 to play in the third quarter had momentarily trimmed the Raider lead to 28-26.
Wilson caught six passes for 188 yards and two touchdowns for the Red Storm. Parkins completed 10 of his 17 passes for 277 yards and three touchdowns.
United head coach David Milroy said his team “played ironman football” for the last seven weeks of the regular season in order to earn the playoff berth.
“Really proud of all of them,” Milroy said during his post-game interview. “Not the ending we wanted, of course, but it doesn’t take anything away from what we accomplished this season.”
