DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) – Two weeks remain in the Illinois high school football regular season, and the TRAC\u2019s spotlight game of the week features undefeated Riverdale hosting Erie-Prophetstown.<\/p>\n
Four years ago, Riverdale did not have a varsity team. Now the Rams are 7-0 for the first time ever.<\/p>\n
Riverdale\u2019s season by the numbers<\/p>\n
The Rams are averaging 26.6 points per game and have held opponents to 14 points or less in every game except their week three matchup against Mendota.<\/p>\n
Head coach Guy Dierikx said the quality and character of his players, along with building off their foundation, has stood out to him about how his team is playing.<\/p>\n
Senior quarterback Abram Krier said the game carries added significance because of the rivalry.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is a special rivalry, it\u2019s Route 2 and this is probably the biggest game in this rivalry history and being able to be a part of that is special,\u201d Krier said. \u201cDiscipline and being physical at the point of attack. You know they have some great offensive linemen there and they run hard and their linebackers come down hard and they\u2019re not afraid to be physical. But we can also do that and we\u2019ve done that all year and I think we have to keep doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Junior Lucas Dunbar said the team will need to manage the atmosphere of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to play smart. You know, it\u2019s going to be good energy. Senior night, it\u2019s going to be a pretty big game. Should be a lot of people there. We\u2019re going to have to stay disciplined, listen, just play physical and play hard,\u201d Dunbar said.<\/p>\n
Dierikx compared Erie-Prophetstown to looking into a mirror.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like looking into the mirror. You know, they\u2019re a great team with a lot of players that have played for, you know, two, three, been starters for two and three years. And so they\u2019re big up front. They have quality skills. Everything runs through their quarterback. And so for us, being able to being able to control him at the same time, make plays when we have opportunities and take advantages of those opportunities when we have them is definitely what we need to do in order to control this game,\u201d Dierikx said.<\/p>\n
Erie-Prophetstown fights for conference positioning<\/p>\n
For Erie-Prophetstown, the game carries conference stakes. The Panthers are tied for second with Rockridge, with Riverdale in front.<\/p>\n
E-P is 6-1 on the season, with its only loss coming against Rockridge two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
Head coach Tyler Whitebread said the group is resilient and faced struggles in early games but has found ways to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think offensively we need to create some big plays. We\u2019ve been able to do that throughout this year. We have to find a way, whether that\u2019s through the running game or the passing game. And then defensively, we have to create takeaways. We know Riverdale is going to create some yardage. They\u2019re going to move the ball on us. But it\u2019s a mentality of bending, not breaking,\u201d Whitebread said.<\/p>\n
Senior quarterback Evan Steimle said the team needs to limit mistakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, it\u2019s going to be a tough game, but it\u2019s going to be a fun game. And we have to keep the game easy and not limit mistakes. So just being the best we can all four quarters and just working together. I think that\u2019s the biggest thing, being a team,\u201d Steimle said.<\/p>\n
Senior Derek Naftcger said the rivalry extends beyond football.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s super exciting, especially with Riverdale because we\u2019re rivals with them, I would say, and basketball, football, just in all sports. And it\u2019s just super exciting that we are two good teams this year that are gonna fight hard to win,\u201d Naftcger said.<\/p>\n
Live pregame coverage will air from Port Byron Friday, with highlights to follow on the Highlight Zone Friday at 10.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KWQC. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) – Two weeks remain in the Illinois high school football regular season, and the TRAC\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137,124321,304,124322,124323,62338],"class_list":["post-302100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-erie-prophetstown-football","tag-high-school-football","tag-riverdale-football","tag-spotlight-game-of-the-week","tag-trac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}