Grayslake North drives past Woodstock North, into postseason
Officially, it was a 21-play drive for a touchdown that swallowed 11 minutes and 21 seconds of the third quarter clock.
Anyone ever seen a march that took all but 39 ticks off the quarter?
Evidently, Grayslake North had seen it, earlier in the year actually.
"Crystal Lake Central did that to us also,'' said North coach Steve Wood.
That was plenty of style points for Woodstock North's plodding march that ended up tying up this contest heading to the fourth quarter.
The rain didn't allow much passing in this game. So home-standing Grayslake North (6-3) ended up using the skills of running back extraordinaire Dami Oladunmoye (24-240, 3 touchdowns) to clinch a spot in next week's state playoffs.
The Knights scored twice in the final quarter to pin a 35-21 loss on Woodstock North.
Wood noted his club has twice the amount of players on his team than Woodstock North brought. One of his rare two-way players is Valparaiso-bound Sean Pearce (6-4, 285).
"That was a great drive by Woodstock,'' Pearce said. "But we have a lot of hard workers on this team. We have worked so hard for this."
In addition to the mammoth drive by the Thunder, both teams scored in a hurry to open the festivities. The game wasn't even a minute old before Oladunmoye broke one off for 66 yards. Three plays later, Woodstock North had knotted this game up. Travis Busch (13-101) used his first carry of the night to go 63 yards.
Woodstock took its first and only lead of the game late in the opening quarter. Again, it was on a first carry of the game, this time by Jacob Schmitt, and his 20 yards and score gave the visitors a 13-7 lead.
Despite limping off the field for a few plays, Oladunmoye went over the 100-yard mark early in the second quarter.
"I needed to bounce back,'' Oladunmoye said. "I get those bumps and bruises."
Pearce, the big blocker running interference, knows he has an important part of the offense to look after in Oladunmoye.
"This is a kid we have to protect,'' Pearce said.
Wood is quite aware that he had a solid blocker in Pearce.
"What a great kid,'' Wood said. "Sean is a three-year starter."
Two Grayslake North scores less than three minutes apart gave the Knights a halftime lead. Oladunmoye scored his second TD of the game from 9 yards out.
Matthew Aiken (7-82) scored from 40 yards out for the halftime lead.
Little did anyone know that once Woodstock North took over after after
halftime that they wouldn't surrender it for almost the entire third
quarter.
"What did they make, four fourth-down plays?'' Wood asked.
The drive didn't conclude until running back, Randall Kline bulled it over from 1 yard out. Grayslake North ran two plays in that quarter.
Both Aiken (16 yards) and Oladunmoye (7 yards) put in touchdowns in the final quarter for the winning Knights.