Unity football comes home for rivalry meeting with Monticello

UNITY, Ill. (WCIA) -- The Unity Rockets have not played a home game since the second round of the 2025 playoffs, and this year's home opener features a rivalry contest.

Unity and Monticello duel it out every year on the gridiron, with the last two seasons having the extra pressure of meeting in the postseason. The Rockets have won both regular season meetings, but the playoff games have been split.

"We're both going to bring our best game and coming from sophomore year, junior year, so we're one-and-one against each other," senior Hudson Deheart said. "This is the year to settle it all."

A Monticello graduate, Unity head coach Tony Reetz has lived and breathed this rivalry his entire life.

"Win or lose, I think we're going to learn a lot about ourselves this week," Reetz said. "I think Monticello would probably say the same thing, you know, because hopefully they look at us as a challenge and something that's going to sharpen their knife."

The annual rivalry test will be played Friday, August 28 at Unity in WCIA 3's Spotlight Game of the Week.