Rochelle 35, Kaneland 24

There was a banner at the brand-new Rochelle football stadium that read, "Silent Knight."

The Kaneland Knights were silenced in their bid to play party pooper as Rochelle christened its new stadium and defeated the Knights 35-24 in a Western Sun Conference game that started late, was delayed 25 minutes because of lightning and concluded with a firework show.

"I've said it every week, with the schedule we play if we don't bring our "A" game we're going to get it handed to us," Kaneland coach Tom Fedderly said. "Rochelle was a class act; they do things the right way."

Rochelle (3-0, 1-0) never trailed and jumped ahead early, needing only three plays on its first possession to find the end zone and take an 8-0 lead.

Kaneland (1-2, 0-1) answered with a 2-yard touchdown run by T.J. Weiss with 3:29 remaining in the opening quarter to make it 7-6 but the Hubs were just getting their running game started.

The Hubs controlled the clock for 7:24 in a drive that began in the final minute of the first quarter and concluded with 6:02 left in the second quarter on Dan Ruppenthal's 6-yard touchdown run.

Then, just 41 seconds later, running back Rosie Garcia broke free up the middle and scampered 64 yards for a touchdown.

After the two-point conversion the Hubs lead 22-7.

Jody Henningson (14-of-33, 276 yards) connected with Brian Claesson with 3:44 remaining in the first half to make it a 22-14 contest at halftime.

The Knights bid for a comeback was slowed to begin the third quarter when Rochelle ran nine straight plays after the opening kickoff and ultimately found the end zone on Garcia's 2-yard run to take a 29-14 lead.

Ultimately, the running game of the Hubs proved to be too much for the Knights to handle as the Hubs rushed 69 times for 428 yards.

"Offensively, us being able to control the ball was big," Rochelle coach Kevin Crandall said. "I think we wore some of their offensive players out by them having to play defense and I think that helped us a lot."

Keeping Henningson and the Knights offense off the field certainly did help and the Hubs seemingly put the game away on a 13-play drive that resulted in Ruppenthal's 9-yard touchdown run.

The drive lasted more than 7 minutes and put the Hubs ahead comfortably 35-17 with 6:49 remaining.

The Knights scored their final touchdown on Henningson's 10-yard pass to Ryley Bailey (4 catches, 85 yards).