PRINCETON — Princeton won last week’s season 44-16 opener over Monmouth-Roseville by outscoring the Titans 30-0 in the fourth quarter. Friday night, the fourth quarter belonged to Peoria Manual.

AMBOY — The Amboy-LaMoille Clippers had to labor for a half against Big Rivers newcomer, the Kewanee Boilermakers, to start the holiday weekend on Friday evening.

The defending 2A state-champ Morrison Mustangs got all they could handle Friday night at the Academy, but used a 329-yard, three touchdown performance from quarterback Danny Dennehey to edge past the host Bruins, 33-27.

PORT BYRON — The Bureau Valley Storm overcame an early surge by the Riverdale Rams Friday night to take a 14-7 victory in a defensive struggle to improve to 2-0 on the young season.

SPRING VALLEY - It only took two plays for Hall junior linebacker/tight end Chase Miller to go from goat to hero.

PRINCETON — Andy Puck scouted Oregon in Tuesday's match vs. Forreston to get an advance on Thursday's match with the Lady Hawks at Prouty Gym. He shouldn't have bothered.

Malden’s Alexis Richards and Ivy Rhodes (far left) get into position to return a serve while Zarina Karns looks on Thursday at Malden during seventh-grade volleyball action against LaMoille.

At Mendota — Hall’s Liz Mosbach (20:59) and Scott Janusick (16:01) finished first in Thursday’s runs at Mendota. The Hall boys topped the field including Sandwich (39), Mendota (59) and Putnam County (105) with contributions from fifth-place Brett Herrmann (18:09); seventh, Brandon Allen (18:31); ninth, Nathaniel Kingry (19:02); 10th, Juan Vera (19:39) and 11th, Joseph Parochetti (19:44).

At Rochelle — Princeton was a 3-2 winner over former NCIC rival Rochelle Thursday in a 2 (singles) 3 (doubles) format. PHS wins came from Sarah Peterson, 6-2, 6-2 at No. 2 singles, Mackenzie Schafer and Stephanie Blessman, 7-5, 6-3 at No. 2 doubles, and Kavita Patel and Ashley Snow, 6-3, 6-1 at No. 3 doubles.

At Deer Valley: Bureau Valley (188) finished third in a Three Rivers triangular Thursday with Fulton (159) and Riverdale (164). Riverdale’s Gage DeCook was medalist at 33. Alex Knisley led BV at 43. Also for BV were Riley DeBrock (47), Ethan Ringle (48), Cody Weborg (50), Chris Miller (53) and Patrick Fisch (55).

At Highland Springs: The Rockridge Rockets defeated Princeton 213-231 in nonconference golf Thursday, led by medalist Sydney Kilean’s 46. For PHS, Alizabeth Fiorini had a 47, Taylor Williams a 52, Taylor Johnson a 63 and Morgan Young a 69.

Bureau Valley made its season opener in Three Rivers play a triumphant one with a 25-13, 25-22 win over Prophetstown Thursday in the Storm Cellar.

College athletes have returned to campus, leaving their mom’s home-cooked meals for dormitory cuisine. The BCR’s long-standing series, Hometown Update, takes a look at area athletes back on campus:

TISKILWA — The host Tigers righted the ship after a five-game losing streak, outshooting the visiting Pioneers of Rock Island Alleman 12-2 with an aggressive offensive attack, as they claimed a 1-0 win in a game shortened by lightning Thursday night at the Tiskilwa soccer pitch.

PERU – St. Bede was facing deficits in both games, but responded in a big way for a 25-23, 25-15 victory for the Lady Bruins over Serena in volleyball action Thursday night at the Academy.

CHILLICOTHE — The return of senior standout Nate DeVenney, who sat out a majority of the 2009 cross country campaign due to injury, helped push the Storm boys’ squad to a quadrangular win over host IVC, Princeton, and Henry-Midland.

With both squads coming off explosive Week 1 offensive performances, there could be a shootout in the making Friday night at Bryant Field in Princeton when the Tigers host the visiting Rams of Peoria Manual.

GRANVILLE – Hall looked as if they were in mid-season form, while Putnam County struggled in the Lady Red Devils’ 25-12, 25-22 victory Tuesday night in Granville.

Sterling may no longer be a NCIC rival, but the Golden Warriors still proved to be a formidable foe on the soccer pitch.

Forget about there being any new sheriffs in town. There’s a new quarterback in town for all five Bureau County football teams in 2010.

Momence (1-0) at Hall (0-1)

Momence coach Joe Kubal remembers Nesti Stadium in Spring Valley well. Maybe too well.

PRINCETON — The 2010 Bureau County Fair Demolition Derby Sunday night was a smashing success.

A near capacity crowd filled the grandstands for Sunday’s Bureau County Fair annual demolition derby in Princeton.

LAMOILLE — LaMoille High School senior Tom Orozco is the last man standing. After years of declining participation in the Amboy/LaMoille co-op football squad, this year Orozco finds himself as the lone representative of his school on the Clippers’ varsity.

Name: Tom Orozco.

Pipe’s Pub in Ohio, Ill., sponsored a sand volleyball team in the Peru CSS Volleyball League. They placed third overall for the season, but got first in the championship tournament. Team members are Dustin Piper (from left), Luke Maloney, Michael Hotz, Jess Smith, Ali Ackerman, Jill Phalen and Ashli Piper.

The St. Bede Lady Bruins won Saturday’s Kewanee Early Bird Invitational, finishing 4-1. The Lady Bruins opened with a loss to Stark County, then bounced back to defeat Peoria Manual and Rockridge in pool play. St. Bede topped Kewanee 25-19, 23-25, 15-9 in the semifinals and then claimed the first-place trophy by defeating Fieldcrest 25-12, 26-24 in the championship match.

“I really love them, they look really new. They’re way better than the other ones.” —

The Princeton Youth Soccer fall league opened with a full schedule of games Saturday at Zearing for all ages. The season runs through mid October with mid-week and Saturday games.

At Oregon - Looking at the scores of Princeton’s weekend in the Oregon Tournament — a 1-1 tie with Belvidere, 1-0 losses to Monmouth-Roseville, West Aurora and Belvidere North and a 2-1 loss to Monmouth-Roseville — it’s quick to see a common theme: it was a heart-breaking .

At Sterling - Both Princeton squads finished second in Saturday’s Sterling Newman Invitational. The varsity shared runner-up honors behind Bloomington Central Catholic with Rockford Lutheran. St. Bede came in fifth of seven teams.

The St. Bede Lady Bruins rebounded from an opening round loss to Stark County to win Saturday’s Kewanee Invitational volleyball tournament.

MANLIUS – Coach Dale Donner believes that his 2010 boys’ cross country team has the potential to be something special. He already has a date scheduled on the Storm’s schedule.

PRINCETON — With nine returning letterwinners on his varsity boys’ cross-country squad, coach Pat Hodge will have plenty of experience to draw from. And with the foundations for success laid with miles of summer roadwork, Hodge is expecting good things from his squad.

PERU — Two dozen St. Bede cross-county runners are ready to traverse through a 14-event regular season, and coach Dennis Summers is initially quite content to let underclassmen be underclassmen and let the varsity-aged runners handle the varsity portion of the meets. But that philosophy may by altered when the IHSA regional three-mile run takes place Oct. 23.

SPRING VALLEY — Coach Tom Keegan’s Red Devil and Lady Devil cross country squads both have similar makeups this fall.

A competitor breaks off his stick, signaling the end of his run in the compact class Sunday at the Bureau County Fair Demolition Derby.

MANLIUS – The Bureau Valley Storm overcame some second-quarter jitters Friday night to turn a 14-14 halftime tie into a 39-14 victory over the Ottawa Marquette Crusaders in their season opener.

PRINCETON — The transformation of Dylan Olson quarterback and team player began Friday night on the turf of Bryant Field.

WINNEBAGO — The host Winnebago Indians overcame early offensive struggles to put together a late second-quarter scoring drive to knot up the visiting Red Devils 7-7, and carried that momentum into the second half to capture a 34-19 win over Hall.

KEWANEE — After all the cheering, hugging, crying and celebrating finally began to die down, Kewanee Coach Chris Waca had just one more thing he wanted his Boilermakers to do.

AMBOY — An early second-half touchdown fumble return and a TD punt return reversed the stem of momentum into the Amboy Clippers’ favor Friday night as two Big Rivers Conference foes looked to gain a share of the upper tier of the conference standings.

PRINCETON — Andy Puck and the Princeton Tigresses settled into a 5-2 offense with junior Jessica Martell and freshman Michelle Kelly teaming up for setting duties. On Wednesday, Kelly sprained an ankle in practice and Puck went to Plan B.

PERU — First-year St. Bede volleyball varsity coach Peggy Zimmerman describes her squad with one word – solid.

PRINCETON — An encore performance can only be made with the same cast of performers, so the Princeton Tigress tennis team will have to perform a new act of their own in 2010.

The wheels on the bus didn’t go round and round on the way home, but the golf meet sure did at Arrowhead Golf Course in Chillicothe Thursday.

DEER GROVE — St. Bede Academy ran into some rough waters in Wednesday’s school year kick-off conference meeting of Three Rivers school officials at Deer Valley Country Club.

SPRING VALLEY — Things are going to be a little different this time around for coach Jason Bland and the Hall football program.

While the NCIC signs off after this season, the inclusion of Kewanee into the Big Rivers fills a void created by the departure of the River Valley co-op, maintaining the league’s status quo with a 10-team conference that fills out the nine-game prep gridiron season.