BLOOMINGTON -- Earlier this week, Bloomington High School coach Rigo Schmelzer admitted his offense was the only thing separating the Purple Raiders from being a "really solid football club."

Maybe now BHS has reached that level.

Behind a new-found offensive weapon that left Mattoon gasping for air and a consistent, hard-hitting defense, Bloomington reached the five-win plateau for the 22nd consecutive season after a 44-10 Big 12 Conference victory during Homecoming Friday night at Fred Carlton Field.

"Coach has a lot of confidence in our passing game and we've been running a lot this year and we wanted to change it up a little bit," BHS quarterback Stephen Esch said. "He has confidence, I have confidence in my receivers and they were allowing us to pass. … All I have to do is get the ball to them and they can score anytime."

And he was getting them the ball.

The 5-foot-11 senior completed 8-of-11 passes for 95 yards -- consistent numbers, but not an overly flashy offensive output. However, four of those eight passes were for touchdowns and at one point, Esch completed five consecutive passes.

"They're simple passes that Stephen's very capable of handling," said Schmelzer.

"But he made some good decisions. He didn't put a ball in position where we couldn't make a play on it. This is the kind of thing we expect out of him."

The simple passes enabled Esch to make simple reads.

"Esch was reading us well," said receiver Josh Mitchell, who had five receptions for 38 yards and two touchdowns. "That was really important."

It was big because the Green Wave had no way of stopping the BHS receivers.

"We knew they had all kinds of speed out there (on the edge)," Mattoon coach Gerald Temples said. "Without question, that's a mismatch for us."

Ahead 17-3 at halftime, the Purple Raiders (5-1 overall and in the Big 12) went ahead 24-3 after Justin Zoeller caught a 5-yard streak pass from Esch.

After punts by both teams, Mattoon (3-3, 3-3) had the ball at its own 17 with 4 minutes, 8 seconds remaining in the third quarter. On second down, Green Wave quarterback Jeremy Jordan faced heavy pressure from his backside. As he attempted his pass, he was hit by Joey Tyson and the ball fell into Eric Furler's hands at the 18.

One play later, BHS increased its lead to 31-3 when Mitchell caught an 11-yard fade pattern in the corner of the end zone from Esch.

After a three-and-out by Mattoon, the Raiders had the ball on the 50 late in the third quarter. Again, BHS needed only one play to score when David Cook caught a hitch from Esch and broke two tackles to score the 50-yard touchdown and put the game away.

"We structurally had things covered but we couldn't make tackles," Temples said. "You can't do that against a good team."

Mattoon was led by Kyle Drummond's 51 rushing yards on 15 carries. Marshall Creed finished with 10 carries for 47 yards. The Green Wave was limited to 161 yards of total offense and seven first downs. Over the past two weeks, the BHS defense has allowed only 160.5 yards of total offense.

The Raiders, who finished with 203 rushing yards, were led by Darrelyn Dunn's 51 yards, Esch's 46 and Darian Davis' 30.

"The running backs I think could've done a better job," Schmelzer said.

Mitchell led the BHS rushing attack after he scored from 72 yards out following a dropped snap while lining up at punter.