Kaneland takes it to Yorkville

By the way Kaneland quarterback Joe Smith carved up the Yorkville defense, it was difficult to believe he was making his first varsity start.

The gunslinging sophomore, who was filling in for injured senior starter Jack Douglas, threw for 260 yards and a pair of touchdowns while rushing for another in the Knights' convincing 35-3 Northern Illinois Big 12 East victory Friday night in Maple Park.

"I was a little nervous, but I trusted my team and my O-line killed it today," said Smith, who was lauded by his coaches and teammates for his solid performance in the postgame speeches. "It was a good team win for us."

"That was recognizing a sophomore and a kid that didn't expect to play who stepped up and really played well," said Knights coach Pat Ryan. "He's got a pretty strong grasp of our offense and he shows a lot of poise in the pocket."

It was an equally impressive effort from a Knights' defense that gave up 60 points in last week's loss to Rich Central. They limited the Foxes to just 137 yards of total offense while producing 4 sacks and forcing 3 turnovers.

Senior Jacob Brown spearheaded the Knights' dominant interior play with a pair of sacks. Alex Moses and Matt Payton collected interceptions while linebacker Bryce Cohoon added a fumble recovery and a sack.

"We just have to play fast and play hard," Brown said. "We had to win this game and send a message to the other conference teams."

"We talked about having to be better at tackling and we did a much better job of that this week," Ryan said.

About the only thing that went wrong for the Knights (2-2, 1-0), was the opening series. They started from their own 3-yard-line and subsequently gave Yorkville possession on the Kaneland 20 after a face mask penalty on the punt.

However, the Knights' defense came up with a huge early stand and Yorkville (1-3, 0-1) missed a 40-yard field goal attempt.

"It was good for our defense to get that three and out after giving up all those points last week," Ryan said. "That set the tone for the game."

Smith completed passes for 18 and 22 yards to Moses and Josh Marczuk on the Knights' ensuing drive and Jonathon Alstott raced around the left side for a 32-yard touchdown run with 5:40 left in the opening quarter.

On the Knights' next series, Chris Angelotti hauled in a 36-yard reception from Smith on 3rd-and-25 and Smith scored two plays later on a 6-yard keeper.

Smith converted another crucial 3rd-and-10 with a 20-yard strike to Max Gagne, then hit Moses for 10 yards to set up a 3-yard scoring run from Trevor Jones.

Jones gave Kaneland a 28-3 halftime lead with a 4-yard touchdown catch in the corner off a nice roll out by Smith.

Smith shook off a pair of late second quarter interceptions by hitting Moses with a perfectly thrown 21-yard touchdown down the middle on the Knights' opening drive of the second half.

"When we looked at the game plan we saw that the safeties came down and the seam would be open on the back side every time," Smith said.