BELLEVILLE - Sophomore running back Steven Brown formed a great one-two backfield punch with senior Dierre Hill, Jr. for Belleville Althoff Catholic's football team this season.
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Brown's contributions to Althoff's 58-19 semifinal win over Camp Point Central on Nov. 23 can't be overlooked, nor his contributions to the team this season. Against the Panthers, Brown ran for 37 yards and also caught key passes to keep drives alive. For the season, Brown has run for 462 yards and six touchdowns, while catching 13 passes for 130 yards and two more touchdowns. He's even run back two kickoffs for 98 yards and a solo touchdown.
After the win over the Panthers in the semifinal, Brown was very excited about how the game turned out, and was already thinking about the final against Lena-Winslow. The Crusaders won the 1A state championship game over Lena-Winslow this past weekend.
"It feels amazing," Brown said of the appearance in the state finals."It's awesome to come away with my guys, and this is awesome, to be like a sophomore, and experience this with everybody, with all my seniors, and family and friends It's amazing. I don't think I've ever had a feeling like this, ever, honestly."
Both Brown and Hill, along with the rest of the Crusaders, were on top of their game from the opening kickoff, and simply overpowered a very good Camp Point Central team which finished 11-2.
"Yes, sir, absolutely," Brown said. "I think our execution was great today. Even though we didn't have as many drives as we're used to on offense, we still went out there and executed. We had a great day offensively and defensively. It was amazing."
Althoff had been waiting just over a year since losing to the Panthers 52-22 in the Class 1A quarterfinals in 2023, and Brown felt very good about how the proceedings went at Belleville in the semifinals.
"We lost last year to Camp Point Central, and we knew we made some mistakes last year, but we knew going into the game this year, we had to fix all those mistakes, and play harder," he said.
"We knew they were going to be a good team, they were going to hit us hard. It's amazing to get them back, and win this game."
