Kodey McKinney made his third start as the St. Joseph-Ogden quarterback this past Friday
night.
Hard to tell with how well he played.
McKinney and the Spartans remained undefeated following a 49-20 Illini Prairie Conference win
at Prairie Central, which followed up a 24-21 home win against Unity on Sept. 6 and a 40-28
season-opening win at Monticello on Aug. 31.
Keeping its high-octane offense in gear, McKinney completed 19 of 29 passes for 250 yards and
four touchdowns. He connected on an 11-yard touchdown pass to Tanner Siems and a 7-yard
touchdown pass to Tim Blackburn-Kelley in the first quarter to build SJO’s lead to 14-0.
He then hit Siems again on an 8-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter and used his feet
to score on a 4-yard touchdown run right before the end of the second quarter to stake SJO to a
28-0 halftime lead at Lewis Field in Fairbury.
And after the host Hawks cut their deficit to 28-14 midway through the third quarter, McKinney
responded with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Blackburn-Kelley to pad SJO’s lead back to 35-14.
Along with his passing numbers, McKinney ran the ball 12 times for 64 yards. All told, the
Spartans racked up 424 yards of total offense.
Coy Taylor caught nine passes for 116 yards, while Kaden Wedig had three receptions for 79
yards. Blackburn-Kelley finished with five catches for 36 yards and Siems had just two catches
— but both resulted in touchdowns — for 19 yards.
Wyatt Wertz rushed for a team-high 72 yards on 15 carries and found the end zone on a 7-yard
run early in the fourth quarter that put SJO ahead 49-20. Taylor also scored on a rushing
touchdown from 5 yards out late in the third quarter that increased SJO’s lead to 42-20.
The Spartans (3-0, 3-0 Illini Prairie) will hit the road for the second straight week when they play
at Chillicothe IVC (0-3, 0-3) at 7 p.m. this Friday. The Grey Ghosts lost 48-6 at Unity this past
Friday night after losing 52-14 against Monticello in Week 2 and 40-13 at Paxton-Buckley-Loda
in Week 1.
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