Kaneland crushes King

Kaneland's senior class broke through with their first playoff win Friday night against King, a victory made possible by the 12 months preceding it.

Friday's win went a long way toward removing the bad taste of last year's first-round playoff loss to Sycamore. That defeat rededicated the seniors in their offseason work, which showed all fall in their undefeated 9-0 regular season.

The results of that great regular season earned Kaneland a No. 1 seed in Class 5A that set the Knights up for a first-round mismatch with No. 16 King. Kaneland's starters played just a half, enough time to build a 42-0 halftime lead that also stood as the final score after the clock ran the entire second half.

“It's kind of a monkey off our back and we kind of expected it,” said one of those seniors, Tyler Callaghan. “It's exciting. We've just got to look forward to next week and keep playing hard.”

No. 1 seed Kaneland (10-0) will play the winner of Saturday night's game between No. 9 Antioch (7-2) and No. 8 Crystal Lake Central (7-2) in the second round.

If nothing else, there promises to be more of a playoff atmosphere than against King (5-5). While Kaneland filled its half of the bleachers as usual, there were six people in the King stands about five minutes before kickoff. By the time the game started the number swelled to 21. That stood as a stark contrast both to Kaneland's enthusiastic crowd and also to a packed visitors side against Sycamore just two weeks ago.

It took two plays for Kaneland to go ahead 7-0 on Joe Camiliere's 45-yard touchdown run. King couldn't stop the big plays all night Kaneland's six touchdowns came on 2-, 4-, 4-, 2-, 4- and 4-play drives.

Camiliere was in the middle of five of the six scores. After his touchdown run, Camiliere took to the air completing his first 10 passes including touchdown tosses to Blake Serpa, Taylor Andrews, Quinn Buschbacher and finally Callaghan with 57 seconds left in the first half. Buschbacher also ran for a score.

Camiliere finished 13-of-15 passing for 218 yards, 4 touchdowns and 0 interceptions, bringing his overall numbers to 27 touchdowns passing and 9 rushing this year against just 2 interceptions. He also went over 2,000 yards passing on the season.

“That's what we expect from our three-year starter at QB,” Kaneland coach Tom Fedderly said. “He's been great down the stretch. I wouldn't expect anything less from Joe.”

While Kaneland's offense struck quick, the Knights defense was just as fast at getting King's offense off the field.

Serpa, Andrews, Callaghan and Nick Michels all had sacks. Ben Kovalick forced a fumble that Jimmy Boyle recovered. Kyle Davidson intercepted a pass.

Freshman kicker Matt Rodriguez also recovered a fumble on one of King's kickoff returns. Rodriguez was perfect on six extra point attempts while just missing a 32-yard field goal.

Kaneland had a 169-1 advantage in total yards after the first quarter and 308-45 at halftime none of that dominance coming as much of a surprise with the 16 vs. 1 matchup.

“You can never expect a 42-0 game but it's nice to get to 40 and get the clock running and get out of here,” Serpa said. “I was happy with how everyone played.”

Ryan Fuchs played the entire second half at quarterback. Fedderly didn't call a pass, instead giving Nick Fornero, Patrick Leyden, Andrew Essex and Curtis Secrest a chance to carry the ball.

“These seniors were really hungry for a playoff win,” Fedderly said. “They went out and played a great half. We worked hard to get in this position, we're just real happy. We got a lot of kids in and the kids got a playoff win.”