An Illinois state record got absolutely shattered Friday night when Quincy Senior High School battled Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy to an insane 88-84 finish in the first round of the 6A high school football playoffs, piling up a mind-blowing 172 total points. That’s not a typo, folks. That’s a high school game that blew past the previous state record of 166 points set back in 2021, and honestly, the score doesn’t even tell half the story of this absolutely bonkers matchup.
This Wasn’t Just a Game, It Was an Offensive Explosion
From the jump, this was pure chaos. Quincy, coming in as the No. 9 seed, made the more than 300-mile drive from southwest of Chicago, asking for a Friday 3 p.m. CT start to dodge hotel costs. No. 8-seeded Goode hosted them in southern Chicago, and what followed was a two-hour offensive slugfest in the first half alone. Goode was clinging to a narrow 60-59 lead at halftime. Officials, seeing the writing on the wall with no lights at the stadium, even tried to save some daylight by shortening halftime to just six minutes. You gotta be kidding me, right? They knew this was going to be a shootout, but nobody expected *this* kind of scoreboard malfunction.
Playing in the Dark? Seriously?
Yeah, you read that right. Despite efforts to speed things up, the game actually had to be suspended due to darkness with 3:42 left on the clock, just before 6 p.m. local time. Can you imagine? Playing a playoff game, you’re in the thick of it, and boom, the sun goes down! Both teams then had to pack up and relocate to the field of nearby Englewood STEM High School, which thankfully, had lights. The Illinois High School Association said it took a full hour to get both squads transported and warmed up again before play could even resume. When the lights finally came on, Quincy was holding an 88-84 lead. After the restart, they recovered an onside kick and just ran out the remaining minutes to seal one of the wildest wins in state history. The whole thing, including the field switch, lasted over four hours. FOUR HOURS!
Record Books Rewritten by Absolute Ballers
The individual performances in this game were just as wild as the final score. Quincy’s junior quarterback Bryson Little was an absolute machine, throwing for more than 650 yards and tossing a state-record eight touchdown passes. Oh, and he added two more scores on the ground for good measure. Ten total touchdowns from one guy! On the other side, Goode’s senior running back Aedan Cleveland put on a clinic, tearing up the field for more than 300 rushing yards and hitting paydirt five times himself. These dudes were just trading blows, going back and forth, making history with every single snap.
What a game. Quincy advances to the second round of the playoffs next weekend, and you gotta wonder if they can even come close to topping this kind of intensity. After dropping 172 total points in a game that literally got too dark to finish, can they possibly keep that wild energy going? We’ll be watching to find out.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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