The Purple Raiders obliged.

And how.

Senior quarterback Jeremy Peden passed for 205 yards and four touchdowns, all in the first half, as BHS built a 50-6 halftime lead and cruised to a 56-6 victory in a first-round Class 6A playoff game.

Peden hooked up with fullback Justin Harrison on a 67-yard TD and fired scoring passes of 81, 13 and 44 yards to Brandon Hughes.

The air show allowed the Raiders to win easily on a night star tailback James Wade played only the first three series because of a sore knee, carrying three times for eight yards.

"We knew passing and spread sets were going to be big with James questionable," said Peden, who completed 4 of 7 passes, including his first three for touchdowns. "They're a very aggressive defense. We put it to them with play-actions and stuff and threw over the top."

BHS, the No. 1 seed in its quadrant, improved to 10-0 and plays next week against either Rock Island (7-2) or Mount Vernon (6-3), who meet today at Rock Island. Eighth-seeded Kankakee ended 5-5 in its first playoff appearance since 1999.

"We knew they had a helluva running game, so I came in figuring, 'If they have to throw the ball, I think we have a chance,'" said Kankakee coach Ira Jefferson.

"But when you have defensive backs playing the way ours played ... we looked like a junior high team trying to play a college team."

The Raiders' first score was the 67-yard pass to Harrison on third-and-9. Their next was the 81-yarder to Hughes on third-and-11.

"We have receivers with great speed," BHS coach Rigo Schmelzer said. "The only question is Jeremy's ability to lead them. Sometimes he throws the ball late. But when he throws off the front leg, and has time to do it, we have kids who can get there."

Donald Brown returned an interception 33 yards for a touchdown on Kankakee's next play from scrimmage, making it 22-0 with 5 minutes, 25 seconds left in the first quarter.

Moments later, a Rod Castillo fumble recovery set up the 13-yard scoring pass from Peden to Hughes and it was 29-0.

After a bad punt snap led to a safety, John Hamrin scored on an 8-yard run, giving BHS a 38-0 lead after one quarter.

"Those kind of things can happen in the playoffs," Schmelzer said of Kankakee's struggles. "Kids are riding the big emotion. They come in wanting to do well. All of a sudden things don't go well, and they're starting to wonder. They've not been in this situation before."

Harrison, a University of Illinois recruit on defense, rushed for 141 yards on six carries, scoring on a 7-yard run in the second quarter and 65-yarder in the third period.

But his early pass reception set the tone.

"We've been working on making sure Peden takes the right drop, plants his feet, gets his elbow up and just throws the ball," Harrison said. "He had been getting sidearm a lot. Today, he looked like his timing was right and his rhythm was right."

"Coach has been on me about how I've been throwing," Peden said. "It was good to come out and throw how he wants me to."

Kankakee avoided a shutout with a 22-yard second-quarter TD run by Dylan Brooks, who finished with 121 yards on 15 carries.

Contact Randy Kindred at rkindred@pantagraph.com.