Round Lake 40, Maine East 6
Round Lake took advantage of early turnovers and dominated on offense, as the Panthers slammed visiting Maine East 40-6 in a non-conference football game on Friday night.
In winning its first game of the season, Round Lake (1-1) held Maine East (0-2) to only 67 rushing yards while causing 5 fumbles and 3 interceptions.
"Our defense played outstanding tonight," Round Lake coach Doug Moss said. "The kids came out and stuck to the game plan real well. (Maine East) had some early turnovers and we took advantage of them."
Running back Ray Bryant led the Panthers offense with 208 rushing yards. The running back/defensive back also scored 2 touchdowns, including the first one of the game on a 28-yard fumble return.
Wide receiver Jerome Brown and running back Cameron Gillespie also scored 2 touchdowns each.
Brown caught TD strikes of 35 and 14 yards from quarterback C.J. Swanson.
"The entire team worked real hard tonight," said Brown, who had 3 catches for 49 yards.
Gillespie, a sophomore, scored his first touchdown on a 49-yard run in the second quarter. His second was from 80 yards out in the third.
"He was an excellent freshman for us last year," Moss said. "He is mainly a defensive player for us, but we thought we would get him some work on offense tonight."
On defense, Gillespie intercepted a pass and returned it 18 yards.
Maine East made it into the end zone on a 41-yard pass from quarterback Josh Myers to Plez Roche with 3:10 left in the fourth quarter.
Myers completed 11-of-28 passes for 248 yards, but threw 3 interceptions.
His main targets were 6-foot-5 senior Avery Roche, who caught 6 passes for 138 yards. His brother Plez had 6 receptions for 81 yards.
"Avery is a confident athlete for us out there," Blue Demons coach Len LaBonar said. "He did a great job for us tonight.
"We put ourselves in position to make some nice pass plays, but we gave (Round Lake) the ball too many times in the first half, and once that happened we knew we were in trouble."