Knights kicking themselves after loss to Prairie Ridge

His offense struggled for a second straight week, and when it had a chance to score some early points, Steve Wood didn't give his kicking unit a chance to execute a makeable field goal.

The coach blamed himself.

"We should have kicked," Wood said.

Instead, the Knights went for it on fourth-and-3 from the 10. And instead of answering Prairie Ridge's game-opening touchdown drive with what would have been a 27-yard field-goal try, Grayslake North came away empty when the Wolves' Kyle Peterson swatted away a pass in the end zone.

"We always kick it too," Wood said. "That's what irritates me."

Prairie Ridge's 35-6 win on a drizzly Friday night in Grayslake added to Wood's frustration.

So, too, did the Knights' offensive struggles. Six of their 11 possessions on the night were three-and-outs, while two other possessions ended on interceptions.

"Offensively, we're just in a rut right now," Knights running back/safety Ross Sauer said. "We're struggling with our blocking and we can't put two plays together."

The Knights didn't score until there were 21 seconds left in the game, when Sean Brennan threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Matt Robinson.

The loss dropped Grayslake North to 2-4 overall and 1-3 in the Fox Valley Fox Division. Prairie Ridge, which answered the Knights' TD with a 67-yard scoring run from backup quarterback Stephen Covalt, improved to 4-2 and 2-1.

"We came off a good win against Morris and we just wanted to keep working hard," said Wolves sophomore linebacker Brad Simms, who had 2 sacks and 2 tackles for loss.

"We're just not good (offensively)," said Wood, whose team scored just 7 points in a loss to Crystal Lake Central last week. "We have good kids and they work hard, but offensively there will be changes made by next week. Enough is enough. It's not the weather's fault."

Grayslake North's defense allowed Justin Henderson's 35-yard TD run on the game's third play from scrimmage, but Prairie Ridge didn't score again the rest of the half.

"We played great (defensively)," Wood said. "We gave up 7 points in the first half, and we gave our offense great field position. ... At some point we got to score."

An interception by Prairie Ridge's Devon Vance on the first series of the second half led to the first of 2 short TD runs by Wolves fullback Tim Deering (27 carries, 112 yards). Three plays after Vance recovered a muffed punt at the home team's 11, QB Jon Williams tossed a 9-yard scoring strike to Dan Wolf.

"In the first half we definitely played one of our best halves of defensive football," Sauer said. "We gave up only 7 points to a decent offensive team. In the second half, I feel that we were out there so much that we just gave up, and that's something we can't do as a defense. We can't give up on ourselves."