Gators chew up McHenry

After a shaky first half of football, all it took for Crystal Lake South to right the ship was eliminating mental errors and stop turning the football over to host McHenry. The Gators did just that as they cruised to a 36-0 victory over the Warriors on Friday night in a Fox Valley Conference Valley Division game.

"I thought we came out with intensity in the first half," Gators coach Jim Stuglis said. "We moved the ball down the field and stuff but there were too many penalties and turnovers. The intensity level I was very pleased with from the get-go, but it was the mental breakdowns we couldn't afford. We stopped those in the second half and then good things happened."

Good things did begin to happen for South in the second half. Already up 7-0, junior running back Colin Masterson put the Gators up by two scores when he reversed the field and ran the ball in from 45 yards out.

"We have been running a new zone blocking offense this week," Masterson said. "We kept running the 28 lead a lot and (McHenry's) whole defense started flowing with it and I cut back and no one was there so I all I had to do was rush in for the score."

South's offense then switched from a running attack to passing using sophomore quarterback Drew Ormseth (5-8 85-yards, 3 TD's). On the next possession Ormseth hit Steve Rogers from 31-yards out to go up 21-0.

Within a matter of seconds, the Gators took advantage of a Warrior turnover when Ormseth hit Vince Bendetto from 28-yards out.

With the game already out of reach, Ormseth threw his third touchdown of the game when he connected with Masterson on a 6-yard touchdown pass.

Defensively the Gators (4-1, 1-0) played sound football. Recording an interception and a fumble recovery, Crystal Lake South held McHenry (1-4, 0-1) to just 94 total yards on offense, including just 17-yards passing.

"Our defense played with a lot of intensity," Stuglis said. "They were able to get to their quarterback and stop the run. Anytime you shutout anybody in high school football you are playing really well. To be where we are at, we are very pleased."