Third downs cost Kaneland
Kaneland did plenty of good things to put itself in a position to win Saturday's opening round Class 5A playoff football game at Sterling.
The Knights didn't turn the ball over, effectively moved the ball with regularity and held the Golden Warriors to less than 250 yards of offense.
But, it was third down conversions that haunted the Knights, as Sterling was able to come up with several key conversions, and defeated Kaneland, 23-21.
"They converted so many third downs that I thought were the big points of the game," Kaneland coach Tom Fedderly said.
"I'd like to see their conversion rate because those just killed us."
Sterling (9-1) led 10-7 at halftime and carried the momentum into its opening drive of the second half. The Golden Warriors converted a pair of key third down plays during a 13-play drive that took more than 6 minutes off the second-half clock.
Ben Minnick (23 rushes, 85 yards) concluded the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run, but the hosts botched the PAT snap and had to settle for a 16-7 advantage.
Later in the quarter, the Knights came up with a huge play on third down when linebacker Tyler Suerth dropped Sterling quarterback Niko Rivera for a 10-yard loss. Eric Tattoni then returned Rivera's punt 54 yards to set up quarterback Joe Camiliere's 9-yard touchdown run to make it 16-14.
With the momentum swinging to its side, Kaneland looked like it might be able to serve an upset special, but the Warriors had other plans of grinding this one out.
"I think early on we were trying to bust out on the outside too much and they were making good open field tackles," Sterling coach Greg King said. "We talked about just getting our shoulders down, getting positive yardage and finishing the run like we should. Once we started that, we started getting first downs."
Sterling converted 3 third downs and a fourth down on a 16-play, 68-yard drive that kept the potent Knights offense on the sidelines for more than 8 minutes. Once the Knights got the ball back they trailed 23-14 with only a little better than 4 minutes remaining.
Kaneland (5-5) would make it interesting though, as Camiliere (19-of-31, 241 yards, 2 touchdown passes) scrambled in the pocket before connecting with Ryley Bailey (10 catches, 110 yards) for a 10-yard touchdown with 41 seconds remaining. Bailey also had a 21-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter.
The Knights' last hope rested on the bounce of their ensuing onside kick, which Sterling safely recovered.
"What a hard fought game. I'm so proud of our kids and how we just kept battling," Fedderly said.
"We knew we had a chance coming in here and facing a very good Sterling team. They just made more plays than we did."