Batavia can't slow Hayes (266 yards), Sycamore

One year after JR Kabba put on a dazzling running display against Sycamore, Markie Hayes returned the favor against the Batavia football team.

The Sycamore senior running back, coming off a 322-yard performance in the Spartans' shutout victory over Rochelle last week, continued his superlative play - on both sides of the ball - against the Bulldogs on Friday night.

Hayes carried the ball 27 times for 266 yards, and backfield mate Joe Daugherty capped the Spartans' opening two drives with double-digit touchdown runs.

The Bulldogs gambled early, often and late, only to drop their fifth consecutive Western Sun Conference game this fall 28-7 in Sycamore.

"(Hayes) is as good a player as we've faced this season," said Batavia coach Mike Gaspari.

Daugherty, who finished with 118 yards on 13 carries, provided the Spartans with a quick 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter on runs of 12 and 28 yards.

"We work very well together," Hayes said of the Spartans' fullback.

Batavia (1-6, 0-5) had a chance to get right back into the game as Danny Seiton, who led the Bulldogs' ground attack with 74 yards in 14 attempts, burned the Sycamore defense on a 36-yard run.

But the Spartans (5-2, 3-2) promptly thwarted the Bulldogs' first-and-10 at their own 15-yard line with an Eric Ray end-zone interception.

Sycamore threatened to put the game away on its ensuing possessions, but a series of costly penalties - and a brilliant play by Ben Allison - enabled Batavia to head into the intermission facing only a two-score deficit.

On the final play before the break, Sycamore was seemingly content to run the clock out.

But Hayes broke free on a power sweep, only to see Allison deny the Spartans' star a 58-yard scoring gallop with a shoestring tackle a yard shy of the end zone.

"He barely got my foot," Hayes said.

Hayes' 37-yard jaunt one play after Sycamore denied the Bulldogs on fourth down left Batavia staring at a 21-0 deficit.

"It really changed the momentum of the game," Gaspari said of Hayes' lone score. "We had to do it to try to keep possession of the ball."

But Batavia broke through midway through the third quarter; Seiton plunged in from a yard out to complete the 10-play, 57-yard match.

The Spartans then iced the game three possessions later as Hayes carried nine times for 64 yards to set up a fourth-down 6-yard connection between quarterback Trevor Mathey and CJ Compher.

"It's the first time I've ever beaten them," Sycamore coach Joe Ryan said.

"I can't remember," Gaspari said when asked the last time Batavia fell to Sycamore. "Those things happen."