Plainfield N. topples Grant
On Friday night in Fox Lake, The Grant Bulldogs unveiled beautiful new field turf, outstanding new bleachers that were not big enough for the crowd, and a glorious new press box.
The play on the field could not be preceded by any of the above adjectives.
Grant dropped to 0-2 on the season after suffering a tough loss to the Plainfield North Tigers (2-0), 28-21.
"We are just not a very good team right now." stated Grant coach, Kurt Rous, as he shook his head in disgust and dragged the ball bag to the locker room.
The game started well for the Bulldogs after forcing a three-and-out on Plainfield North's first possession.
The Bulldogs than marched down field on a 13 play drive that ended with a Justin Coke air (21 carries, 112 yards) touchdown run. The Bulldogs also got big ground games by Dan Hourihan (21 carries, 108 yards) and Leo Minne (7 carries, 65 yards).
As impressive as the offensive numbers were, the Bulldogs would shoot themselves in the foot with 3 turnovers on big drives. Two of which resulted in Tiger touchdowns.
After going up 14-7 on an 11 yard touchdown run by Leo Minne, Devonte Davis , who medaled down state in track and field last year, returned the kick off 83 yards for the score.
"We gave up 14 points off turnovers and gave up a kick off return for a TD," Rous explained, "That is the difference."
Devonte Davis was all over the field for the Tigers as he netted 80 yards rushing in addition to his 83-yard tackle-breaking kick off return. He also had 108 yards receiving in the clutch as Grant could not get the big stop it needed to get the ball back.
Plainfield North ran for 350 yards in its Week 1 victory. Grant didn't stop them, but did contain them, holding them to 154 yards on the ground. Coach Rous still wasn't happy with that effort.
"They still got enough yards to win," he said.
After facing two tough nonconference opponents to start the year, Grant will open up their NSC Prairie schedule with the Lakes Eagles in Lake Villa next Friday night.
Will these two tough losses help Grant prepare for conference play?
"We'll see," was all a disappointed Rous could say.