Collinsville 40, Santo 13 — Justin Hollingsworth scored a touchdown late in the first quarter to give the Wildcats an early lead, but the Pirates closed the first half with 34 unanswered points to take control on their way to a comfortable win.

Collinsville had four passing touchdowns and a fumble return score in the second quarter to go to halftime up 34-7 and tacked on another passing TD in the third quarter, before Santo closed out the scoring with another rushing score by Hollingsworth.

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Muenster 49, Collinsville 28 — The Hornets locked up the district championship with a comfortable win over the Pirates.

Muenster, which was led by quarterback Casen Carney, built a 28-7 lead by halftime and stretched that advantage to 42-14 by the start of the fourth quarter.

SANTO — The Santo football team entered Thursday night’s District 8-2A Division II matchup at W.A. Lewis Field with Lindsay knowing that it was already headed to the playoffs, but the Wildcats needed to beat the Knights to secure the No. 3 seed.

A rough six minute stretch between the end of the second quarter and start of the third put SHS in a hole it couldn’t dig out of in a 55-34 loss in the penultimate game of the regular season.

Santo will now close out the regular season with a road game at No. 7 Collinsville — which is tied for the district lead with No. 2 Muenster ahead of their Friday night showdown.

Muenster 28, Santo 0 — Casen Carney threw a pair of touchdown passes and ran for two more scores to lead the Hornets to a shutout win over the Wildcats in a game that was called at halftime due to weather.

Carney had passing touchdowns to Dustyn Croft and Maverick Bayer to stake Muenster to a 14-0 first-quarter lead, before running for scores of 43 and 56 yards to cap the scoring in the second quarter.

Santo 54, Chico 14 — Dillan Branham ran for 126 yards and a touchdown and had two kickoff return touchdowns, while Jackson McKinnerney added 62 yards and three scores on the ground to lead the Wildcats to a lopsided win over the Dragons.

Michael Lockwood and Justin Hollingsworth also had rushing scores for Santo (6-1, 2-0), which closed the game with 41 unanswered points to rally from an early 14-13 deficit.

Santo 27, Era 14 — Jackson McKinnerney ran for 108 yards and two touchdowns, and the SHS defense limited Era to 144 yards of total offense to fuel the Wildcats to a two-score win over the Hornets.

Justin Hollingsworth also had a rushing score and Rylan Griffith had 79 yards rushing and passing TD for Santo (5-1, 1-0), which took advantage of a 3-1 edge in the turnover margin.

All of District 8-2A Division II was idle on Friday, with district play opening next week. 

Here’s a quick look at the approaching matchups: 

Continue reading “DISTRICT 8-2A DIV. II WEEK 6 REPORT: Mutual open date gives teams time to prep, heal before league play” →

Millsap 49, Santo 27 — Braun Johnson ran for 205 yards and Madden Gilbert passed for 254 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Bulldogs to a three-touchdown win over the Wildcats.

Gabriel Jones added 128 yards receiving for Millsap, which built a 42-7 halftime lead and remained in control from there in handing Santo (4-1) its first loss of the season.

Santo 19, Rio Vista 14 — Rylan Griffith ran for 114 yards and Dillan Branham added 92 yards as the Wildcats amassed 346 yards rushing in a hard-fought win over the Eagles.

Santo also got 60 yards and a touchdown from Jackson McKinnerney and 33 yards and two scores from Justin Hollingsworth in improving to 4-0 on the year.

Santo 53, Bruceville-Eddy 13 — Colt Bridges and Jackson McKinnerney both topped the 100-yard rushing mark as the Wildcats ran for 486 yards as a team to bury the Eagles.

Bridges led Santo (3-0) with 128 yards and a touchdown on just eight carries, while McKinnerney had 123 yards and two scores on three attempts. Other producers for the Wildcats include Colt Howry (3-88, 1 TD), Justin Hollingsworth (6-80, 2 TDs) and Rylan Griffith (9-67, 1 TD).

SANTO — Any football coach who utilizes the triple option (and any coach trying to defend against it) will tell you that the fullback is the key.

And in Class 2A, one good fullback is generally worth his weight in gold.

So at flexbone-based Class-2A Santo, an effective three-man combination at fullback in Jackson McKinnerney (5-9, 190, Jr.), Colt Bridges (5-10, 175, So.) and Justin Hollingsworth (6-0, 175, Sr.), is not only rare, but potentially devastating.

Santo 48, Valley View 0 — The Wildcats ran for 352 of their 399 total yards while holding the Eagles to just 56 yards of offense in a blowout win.

Rylan Griffith led the ground attack with 103 yards and a touchdown on just nine carries, while Dillan Branham (7-87, 1 TD), Colt Bridges (6-74, 2 TDs), Justin Hollingsworth (8-43, 2 TDs) and Jackson McKinnerney (4-19, 1 TD) also found the end zone on the ground for Santo (2-0).

Santo 30, Electra 6 — Led by Luke Sides, who recorded 10 tackles, a sack and two tackles for loss, the Wildcats defense limited the Tigers to a single fourth-quarter touchdown in a blowout win. 

The Santo offense, meanwhile, piled up 267 of its 283 total yards on the ground to extend a 17-0 halftime deficit to 24 points before Electra finally got on the board.

With just four players in it, the Santo senior class is small by any standard. But coach Devon Mann said you’d be hard pressed to find a better group of leaders.

The last left standing from a class that was too small to field standalone teams in seventh or eighth grade, the quartet of Luke Sides, Justin Hollingsworth, Michael Lockwood and Diego Marin hold a special place in their coach’s heart and the Wildcats’ locker room.

Sides, Hollingsworth and Lockwood, in particular, have taken on pivotal roles, both on the field and as leaders for a team that is slated to be quite young around them. And Mann is confident that the work they’ve put in and sacrifices they’ve made to make it to their senior year will pay off in a significant way this fall.

After fighting through back-to-back losing seasons — the first two in Devon Mann’s eight-year tenure as head coach — the Santo Wildcats are expecting a return to winning football in 2025.

While still on the younger side after graduating 10 lettermen and returning just three senior starters from last year’s 4-6 squad, the ‘Cats feel like they have the talent in their program to start a run of success like the one that saw them win 21 games across the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

With successful campaigns at the freshman and junior varsity levels a year ago, Santo’s younger players are accustomed to winning football games. And Mann said the upperclassmen in his program who aren’t could soon become so with the team he’ll be putting on the field this fall. 

Football is just around the corner, and we at BigCountryPreps.com are committed to bringing you the information you need to prepare for your favorite team’s season.

We’ll be releasing our Big Country Preps Preseason Football Preview, the most comprehensive look at the upcoming Big Country football season anywhere, on Wednesday, Aug. 20. But you won’t have to wait until then to sate your gridiron appetite.

Leading up to the first day of fall football practice on Aug. 4, we’ll be spotlighting each 11-man team in the area and posing some of the key questions they’ll face in 2025 as part of our annual “Countdown to Two-a-Days” series.

Today, we take a look at the Santo Wildcats.