Crystal Lake South upends Hampshire
Crystal Lake South made more big plays than Hampshire. That was pretty much the story as the Gators spoiled the Whip-Purs' homecoming, 45-20, Friday night.
South scored on 4 plays of 50-plus yards and its shortest scoring play was a 13-yard run. The Whips made some big plays of their own, but not quite enough to overcome the Gators' balanced attack.
Luke Nolan threw 2 long scoring passes to Matt Meyers, Kyle Leva ran for 2 scores, including one on a fake punt, Lucas Marchewka scored on another long run, and Sam Greenspan returned an interception for a score as the Gators (2-4, 2-4) dominated in the Fox Valley Conference matchup.
Nolan completed just 7 passes on the evening, but they covered 232 yards. Meyers caught 4 for 177 yards. Leva (122) and Michael Wiatly (109) each topped 100 yards on the ground for the Gators.
For Hampshire, Jake Vincent completed 13 of 28 for 213 yards. Jared Hornbeck hauled in 9 of those for 175 yards. Dan Tuzak had 126 yards on the ground.
None of the Gators' long plays was bigger than the one they pulled off on their first second-half possession. Facing third-and-2, they lined up for a punt. But the ball went directly to up-back Leva, who followed his blockers 58 yards for a score that put the Gators ahead 24-6.
"We challenged our guys to play mistake-free in the second half and we were able to do that," said South coach Chuck Ahsmann. "We hit some big plays."
Leva and quarterback/punter Nolan called the play from the field after making the right reads.
"We had worked on that formation in practice and I was talking with Nolan and he said, 'Yeah, just go take it.' "
Hampshire cut into the deficit a couple of times, but the Gators always seemed to have an answer.
"We were just saying that if they could do it, we could do it to," Nolan said.
Hampshire didn't look past the Gators despite their 1-4 record coming in.
"That's the thing about this league right now," said Hampshire coach Mike Brasile. "You look at South being 1-4 and they've been in every game. They're only losing by one or two scores. They made some plays tonight. That fake punt really hurt us coming out of halftime, coming out and scoring and put us behind again. They made enough plays to win and we didn't make enough to overcome that."
South took an early lead on Kory Olsen's 26-yard field goal. Hampshire took its only lead of the night on the next possession, as Vincent found Hornbeck deep down the right sideline and the latter wove his way through traffic to the end zone. The Gators regained the lead for good 6 plays later when Leva took it in from 13 yards out. Greenspan's pick-6 on the next series gave the Gators an 18-6 lead after one period.
Hampshire honored coach former Ron Ellett and his 1976 Class 1A state champions before the game, but unfortunately for Hampshire, the magic of that team didn't rub off on the current version.