Wheaton St. Francis kicked off the second day of the state high school football championships today by winning its first football state title 49-35 over Metamora in the Class 5A finale at the University of Illinois’ Memorial Stadium in Champaign.

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that three more championship games will be played today: Lemont against Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin at 1 p.m. in Class 6A, Geneva against East St. Louis at 4 p.m. in Class 7A, and Maine South against Hinsdale Central at 7 p.m. in Class 8A.

Running backs Mark Kachmer and Stan Bobowski ran for three touchdowns each to lead the St. Francis (13-1) Saturday. The two teams set a 5A record for most points in a title game, and the teams’ combined totals of 84 points and 824 yards also broke 5A records.

Half of the championships were settled Friday. Bloomington Central Catholic took the Class 4A crown with a 37-28 victory over Aurora Christian; Illini West-Carthage posted a 21-14 win over DuQuoin in Class 3A; Triopia beat Toulon Stark County 42-7 to win the Class 1A title; and Elmhurst’s Immaculate Conception tallied a 36-17 victory over Casey-Westfield for Class 2A honors.

Bloomington Central quarterback Adam Rebholz scored two touchdowns to power the Saints’ (14-0) fourth state title and first since 1994. They’ve won state titles in four different classes — 1A, 2A, 3A and 4A.

Rebholz was 16-of-21 for 319 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 80 more.

In the Class 3A game, quarterback Mike Lafferty hit Jake Schmudlach with an 18-yard touchdown pass with 25 seconds left to lead Illini West-Carthage over DuQuoin.
It’s Illini West’s first state football championship in the two-year history of the school.

David Arendt ran for 167 yards and two touchdowns to lead Concord Triopia, which won the title in the smallest of the eight classes. It was the school’s first state football championship since 1975 – the second year of the state playoffs.

The four other games are Saturday.