08/29/2026
Monticello football defeats Unity in another thriller
TOLONO — Maddox Utley got the call from the Monticello sideline.
And knew what he had to do.
Get to Unity quarterback Carter Schmid.
The Monticello junior linebacker started moving closer to the line of scrimmage with Schmid in the shotgun, and the visiting Sages clinging to a four-point lead in the final seconds of Friday night’s Illini Prairie Conference showdown between the two rivals at Hicks Field.
Once Schmid clapped his hands to receive the snap, Utley was already sprinting toward him on an inside blitz. Schmid faked a handoff to Unity running back Michael Hardin near the Monticello 20-yard line and dropped back to pass while surveying the field.
He hardly had any time to make a decision, however, with Utley nearly reaching him after breaking through the Unity offensive lien and steering clear of a last-gasp block attempt by Hardin. Schmid rolled to his right, still hoping he could unleash a pass downfield for a possible last-second game-winning touchdown.
He never got the chance to do so, though. Utley delivered a clutch sack on the final play of the game, and with Unity out of timeouts, the Sages could start savoring a hard-fought 27-23 victory against the Rockets.
“It was a critical moment, and we had to get the stop,” Utley said. “I knew once when coach called in the blitz, it was for me, and I knew I had to get this. I’m ecstatic right now.”
The win by Monticello (2-0, 2-0 Illini Prairie) is the first by the Sages in the regular season against the Rockets (1-1, 1-1) since the 2018 season. A historic season for Monticello since it finished 14-0 and won a Class 3A state championship.
No one is suggesting, after two games in late August to start the 2026 season, that these Sages are destined to follow that same path from eight years ago. But the genuine celebrations the Monticello players and fans enjoyed late Friday night at Hicks Field proved this wasn’t just a normal regular-season game.
A normal ame doesn’t seem to happen any time Monticello and Unity meet. Especially recently. Three of the last four games between the two foes have come down to the last play, with a 34-7 win by Unity in the second week of the 2025 regular season the exception.
There was the Hail Mary that wasn’t because of a penalty to end a 2024 3A state semifinal game that Monticello won 23-20.
There was the two-point conversion pass by that was intercepted by the Rockets to end a 2025 3A second-round playoff game that Unity won 21-20.
And there was Friday night.
“To win a close game against Unity is always special,” Monticello coach Cully Welter said. “We’ve come up short a lot of times against them, and that’s a credit to Unity because they’re a great program. It’s nice to get one once in a while.”
Welter and his Sages can enjoy the weekend with a win not only thanks to Utley’s last-second defensive stop, but also thanks to the duo of Colton Shubert and Zeke Young. Shubert, Monticello’s senior quarterback, completed 18 of 27 passes for 261 yards, four touchdowns and just one interception. A week after he missed the second half of Monticello’s 26-6 season-opening home win against Chillicothe IVC because he was sick, Shubert shined the brightest in the second half on Friday night.
“The nerves got to me last week,” Shubert said, “but I did the right preparation this week, and I was ready to go.”
His 31-yard touchdown pass to Young in the left corner of the end zone gave the Sages a 27-23 lead with 3:26 remaining. Young hauled in six passes for 124 yards, including three touchdown catches. His first score gave Monticello a 14-7 lead with 3:45 left before halftime, his second score put Monticello ahead 21-14 with 8:55 left in the fourth quarter and his final score silenced the Unity home crowd. Shubert stepped up in the pocket to avoid the Unity rush and then dropped a well-thrown ball to Young, with the elusive Monticello wide receiver a step ahead of Unity defensive back Adam Reedy for the eventual game-winning touchdown.
“We knew Reedy was do***ng Zeke everywhere he went, so we tried to get him in motion and ran a little rub wheel-type play where we just tried to get him some space,” Welter said. “I thought Colton made a really good pass.”
The connection Shubert and Young had on Friday night wasn’t just a product of one game. But rather a product built through years of working together and developing that bond.
“That’s my guy right there,” Shubert said. “We’ve got a ton of talent all over the receiver room, but Zeke and I have got a really good chemistry. We’ve grown up together. We’re best friends. I feel like I’ve been over at his house half my life.”
Fellow senior Will Osborne also contributed significantly for the Sages, with Osborne making six catches for 98 yards. He hauled in a 37-yard touchdown pass with 5:10 left in the first quarter to stake Monticello to a 7-0 lead.
Unity only led once when Hardin bulled his way into the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown run with 6:55 remaining in the fourth quarter to put the Rockets up 23-21. Hardin produced 70 rushing yards on 22 carries, while Schmid added 63 rushing yards on 16 carries. One of those carries by Schmid resulted in an 8-yard touchdown run on the final play of the second half to help the Rockets tie the game at 14 at halftime.
But Monticello’s defensive line frustrated the Unity run game, with the Rockets never able to stack one successful run after another.
“Big tip of the hat to Monticello and its defensive front,” Unity coach Tony Reetz said. “They played really, really well. They’re always so well-coached defensively and have such a good scheme. That’s what having nine returning starters on defense does for you. We were in that boat last year, so I knew what we were up against when we came in, and they lived up to the hype.”
Schmid completed 18 of 27 passes for 192 yards, with fellow juniors Beckham Brink and Jackson Cheely his main targets. Brink caught seven passes for 101 yards, including a 46-yard touchdown on a pass by Schmid in the flat before Brink outran the Sages’ defense to the end zone to tie the game at 7 with 2:47 left in the first quarter. Brink helped set up the Rockets’ go-ahead touchdown midway through the fourth quarter, too, by taking an inside screen pass and powering his way ahead for a 24-yard reception down to the Sages’ 5-yard line. Cheely added six catches for 57 yards.
“The thing to me that jumps out is the fact that we responded well at times,” Reetz said. “That touchdown at the end of the first half was huge, and even just moving the ball down the field at the end of the game was big, too. Those kinds of things are really big in the grand scheme of things when you’re talking about growing and maturing and becoming a good team that we think we can be.”
Both Monticello and Unity are perennial playoff teams and should once again reach the postseason this season, especially with an expanded field of 48 teams in each class. Whether they meet again in the playoffs for the third straight season will play itself out in the next few months.
But on Friday night, the Sages weren’t thinking about when they could meet the Rockets again. They were just relishing the moment. A moment made by making big plays at the right time.
“It is so good to finally come back after the loss in the playoffs and rally as a team to get this win,” Utley said. “Everybody played 150 percent. We knew how critical this game was. We knew how good Unity is. This is beyond surreal.”
Matt Daniels is sports editor at The News-Gazette.
