Richwoods turns tables on Peoria High behind Carder’s five TDs, big defensive plays: ‘Always believed’
- Jonathan Michel
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
PEORIA — A steadily increasing rain couldn’t dampen the celebration for Richwoods football on Friday night.
The first week of the high school football season is hard to predict and a journey into the unknown to some extent. But Richwoods, a team that hasn’t had a winning since 2017, taking down Peoria High, a giant in the area football landscape for a decade and change?
You can believe it, as the Knights defeated their crosstown rivals 48-30 at Peoria Stadium, setting off a jubilant celebration of green and white on the gridiron, the likes of which haven’t been seen in years.
Speaking of believing, that’s what Knights quarterback Eli Carder had done all along.
“I always believed,” Carder said. “I've been having dreams of this since this last season. I've been having dreams about this season for so long, [dreams of] me starting, me getting the job done, and I did it.”
Carder threw five touchdown passes and his defense came away with three first-half interceptions that helped the Knights put the Lions on their heels early. The win marked Richwoods’ first over Peoria High since 2017.
“Some of these young men love football, and that’s important, and they went out there and competed,” Richwoods head coach Jim Ulrich said. “We just talked about next play mentality because [Peoria High] is a good school. They’re going to have their success and you just have to realize that through all the good stuff and bad stuff and see what happens.”
“I’m really happy for the young men more than anything because they deserve it.”
Richwoods seized momentum on Peoria High’s first play from scrimmage when Peoria High quarterback Eli O’Donnell, who transferred to the Lions after playing for Richwoods last season, threw an interception. His second pick turned into points when Micah Hunt took a handoff 28 yards to the house for a 6-0 Richwoods lead.
Later in the first half Richwoods’ Austin Leverett intercepted a pass deep in his own territory and returned it 98 yards for a touchdown and Carder threw the first of his touchdown passes to DiOran Turner-Cadoree to go up 19-0.
Peoria High made a charge as DeShaun Anderson-Davis broke off a long touchdown run to get the Lions on the board and eventually recovered an onside kick to start the second half. With Raheim Pickett given the reins at quarterback, he threw a touchdown to Kyiron Woodard that trimmed the Richwoods lead to 26-22 early in the third quarter.
But Carder and the Knights maintained composure as the quarterback connected for the first of two second-half touchdowns to Josh Taylor, both of which helped keep Richwoods in front after the Lions continued nipping at their heels.
“I made an adjustment during the call, and I rolled out, I took a big hit by two people and I still delivered the pass, and we scored,” Carder said.
While Richwoods’ shock-inducing win was a whole team effort, Carder especially shouted out his offensive line for allowing him to operate at a high level
“They pulled together, they even surprised me,” Carder said. “ I think that they played a big, huge part in our win.”
After a meeting at midfield between coaches and officials, the game was called with 2:13 left in the fourth quarter due to lightning in the area.
Following the handshake line, the Knights ran to the front of the visitor stands, mobbed by overjoyed students and fellow teammates. The win felt validating to a squad whose junior varsity team went 7-2 last season and hopes to continue that success at the varsity level.
“We got a lot of good juniors, got a couple seniors that played their heart out,” Carder said. “ At the start, it was a little rocky, but all in all, we pulled it off.”
Richwoods isn’t content with Friday’s victory being a flash in the pan. The Knights will get more tests in the next two weeks as they host rival Peoria Notre Dame in Week 2 and travel to Normal Community in Week 3.
“I feel like this win definitely put our foot on the gas to continue and finish the season out,” Carder said.
But as sweet as celebrating a table-turning win over their rivals in rain-soaked jerseys was, there’s eight more weeks of work to do in the regular season, something that is at the front of Ulrich’s mind.
“It’s just one win,” Ulrich said. “But that’s our first Week 1 win since 2017. That gets you on the right track and with the new setup with the playoffs, you got some more games on the schedule you can go out and compete and win.”
“But we can’t worry about that right now, we got to worry about Week 2.”
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