St. Charles East knocks off Larkin
Big plays, big hits and a big, big road win with its postseason livelihood against the wall.
There's nothing more you could say to better describe St. Charles East's 48-0 rout over Larkin at Memorial Field in Elgin Friday, as a 3-4 football team seeking a playoff run was all businesslike with not only quick scoring drives and turnovers in the first half, but a physicality that Larkin (0-7, 0-5) couldn't match all night.
Royals wideout AJ Hunter was knocked out of the game just 2 plays in with a head injury, while quarterback David Hibbler, who sat out a drive after suffering a hard hit on a scramble along the sideline, was intercepted twice and sacked 3 times. All that, plus the fact Larkin couldn't capitalize on its 9 drives let alone tackle Cameron Canales on offense or special teams, gave East (3-4, 3-2) momentum going into its do-or-die game against rival St. Charles North next week.
“We've gotten better at a our physicality, we've gotten better at our execution, we just come out and do what we do,” Saints coach Bryce Farquhar said. “We don't change for anyone. We really just executed our plays and make our adjustments.”
The Saints went up 14-0 in the first quarter thanks to Zach Mitchell's 3-yard touchdown run and Canales' 95-yard punt return touchdown. The lead grew to 34-0 by halftime after Zachary CoCroft's interception led to the first of 2 touchdown passes for Dante Macaluso and Justin Galante, while Canales zipped on by with 1:33 left on a 15-yard touchdown run.
But what was clear from the get-go — when Hunter was flipped backward suplex-style on a screen pass stuffed by the Saints' defense — which resulted in a 15-yard penalty — the Royals were in for a long night.
“We just wanted to get in, get the win, play hard and get ready for North next week,” said cornerback David McDermott. “Just take care of business and control their speedy guys.”
Larkin's Chevelle Clements rushed 30 times for 173 yards while Hibbler converted just 8 of 24 passes for 70 yards and rushed for 20 yards on 13 carries. The Larkin offense totaled just 250 totals yards, which paved the way for the Saints to open every valve it could.
Mitchell only completed 3 of 5 passes for 78 yards, but all 3 went for touchdowns — a 41-yard pass to Galante, a 22-yard throw to Macaluso and an 11-yard score from John “Jack” Zylke — a rarity within the Saints' triple option offense.
“We were pretty effective with our passing game,” Farquhar said. “We don't pass a ton but when we do we want it to be effective.”
Speaking of effective, you can't forget Canales. He totaled 132 yards rushing on 9 carries, which led 6 different Saints carriers. That alone accounted for nearly half of the 291 rushing yards as Macaluso finished with 46 yards on 8 carries while Maxwell Hatch, who added a 32-yard touchdown run in the second half, finished with 97 yards. In total, the Saints grabbed 369 total yards, which doesn't include the 95-yard zigzag that would make PAC Man dizzy. Canales actually went back for the punt after the ball skidded to the East 5-yard-line, and danced his way through a few tackled down the sidelines, zagged back to the middle of the field and down the right sideline again.
“I thought I was going to let it go, then I realized where I was at and that I should pick it up, didn't want to get pinned,” deep as Canales mentioned. “Everything worked out, people were blocking downfield getting it down. It was all blockers, I just had lanes and alleys to go through.”
And to Royals coach Dragan Teonic, it's those lines that the Royals just can't read between this season.
“It's a nonstop battle on a daily basis where we're not where I thought we would be in year two. We're not,” Teonic said. “We fought a little bit in the second half, where the (heck) were we in the first half? Defensively we had a plan and we didn't execute it well.”