Even with last Friday’s loss at Rockridge, the goal of a conference championship remained very much in sight for the Erie-Prophetstown football co-op.

But in order to maintain the hope of turning that goal into a possible reality, the Panthers had to bounce back quickly and help their own cause on senior night at Prophetstown High School.

Welcoming a Mercer County club struggling through a five-game losing streak to Mosher Field, E-P got the bounce-back effort it was seeking with a 41-20 Three Rivers Rock Division victory Friday night.

“On film, I thought Mercer County was playing good football and keeping good teams close,” said Erie-Prophetstown coach Tyler Whitebread. “We knew this was definitely going to be a challenge, and that we had to come out and play all four quarters.”

The victory keeps the Panthers (6-1) very much in the Three Rivers Rock title hunt at 3-1 as it sets up next Friday’s crucial conference showdown at first-place Riverdale. The undefeated Rams (6-0, 3-0; ranked No. 4 in 2A) are at Sterling on Saturday to take on Newman (4-2, 2-1).

“If someone told me we’d be 6-1 at this point in the season, I’d have taken it all day long,” said Whitebread. “But Riverdale is a great team, probably the best team we’ll see all year, and we’re going to have our hands full. There’s a reason they’re ranked No. 4 in the state.

“We know them well, and they know us well. We know what we’ve got to do, and we have to have a great week at practice.”

Pending the outcome of Saturday afternoon’s Riverdale-Newman tilt, that could set up two crucial conference matchups next Friday. In addition to Erie-Prophetstown’s matchup at Riverdale, Rockridge hosts Newman.

“It’s going to be a tough game,” E-P senior quarterback Evan Steimle said of next Friday’s showdown in upper Rock Island County. “I thought last week (at Rockridge), we battled and battled, but they won the fourth quarter. We were at another serious level this week, and we knew we had to bring it.

“Mercer County is a good team. We knew we couldn’t think about next week, about the future. We had to think about tonight.”

Steimle did his part to help the Panthers rebound from last Friday’s 27-14 loss at Rockridge. He rushed for 179 yards and three touchdowns on 20 carries, completed five of eight passes for 79 yards and two TDs, had two interceptions and hit on five of six extra-point attempts.

Right now, he hopes that Friday’s Senior Night win is not the last time he and his E-P teammates step onto the Mosher Field turf this fall.

“We’re hoping to get a home playoff game here,” said Steimle. “That would be amazing.”

Up by just one score at halftime, the Panthers had an early second-half touchdown wiped by a penalty, but it did not take them long to get that score back as Matthew Ballard ripped off a 46-yard TD run to put the hosts up 21-7 nearly four minutes into the third period.

“The hole was wide, the biggest I’d ever seen,” said Ballard. “I knew I was going to go far when I saw it. It was what we needed to give us a push and keep us going.”

Then Steimle, whose second interception of the night had led to Ballard’s score, made it a 27-7 game with a 43-yard TD run with 4:37 left in the third.

“It was awesome to see a younger guy like Matt step up,” Steimle said of his sophomore teammate. “He really set it off for us.”

Steimle would add a 45-yard touchdown run — his third of the evening — early in the fourth period, then connect with Caleb Brown (three receptions, 53 yards) on a 39-yard touchdown strike with 5:26 remaining to cap his stellar Senior Night performance.

The first of two opening-half turnovers led to E-P’s first points of the night. After MerCo’s opening series ended when Cash Wolf recovered a fumble at the hosts’ 48-yard line, the Panthers took nine plays to cover the remaining distance as Steimle scored from two yards out and then booted the extra point for a 7-0 lead.

However, Mercer County was able to respond to the Panthers’ early strike. A 71-yard drive that had an initial touchdown wiped out by a holding penalty resulted in a one-yard Eli Boswell run and Cannon Link’s tying PAT kick to make it a 7-7 game.

Boswell led the way for the Golden Eagles (1-6, 0-4) with 113 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries. Teammate Logan Schreurs had 68 yards on nine carries along with four receptions for 59 yards.

The Panthers regained the lead at 14-7 with 4:17 left before halftime. A 58-yard pickup on a Steimle keeper led to a successful E-P fourth down conversion when Steimle hit Lane Decker from 10 yards out for the go-ahead touchdown.

From that point, E-P was able to gradually open up the cushion it needed to get back in the win column.

“We needed this win,” said Ballard, “or we’d be going into Riverdale next week with the wrong attitude.”