Grayslake Central holds off Streamwood

Grayslake Central appeared to be on the verge of a blowout. Streamwood had other ideas, however.

In the end, Grayslake Central pulled out a 14-9 win in a nonconference football game on Friday night.

"It was a great high school football game," said coach Nick Goshe, whose Rams finished 4-5. "You had two teams that really fought it out and we were fortunate to come out on top."

Grayslake Central sophomore Joey Valvidia, who led all rushers with 187 yards, scored twice in the first half in helping the rams build a 14-0 lead.

Valdivia, who last week rushed for 194 yards and 4 TDs against Grayslake North. scored from 31 yards out for the Rams' first touchdown early in the second quarter and added a 3-yard touchdown run late in the half.

"I thought I was going down at the 20-yard line, but I was able to break away and score," Valdivia said of his first score.

Streamwood's Joey Hanover opened the second half with a great kickoff to pin the Rams on the 5-yard line.

Rams quarterback Mike Gentile took the first down snap and attempted to pass, but instead while he was being sacked by the Sreamwood defense, threw the ball into the ground and was called for intentional grounding at the goal line. The Sabres were awarded a safety.

"We opened up and there seemed to be some confusion on the kickoff where we couldn't get organized," Goshe said."We ended up taking the safety and swung the momentum to them and (Streamwood) kind of played on our side of the field the entire second half. We made a lot of costly mistakes, which almost cost us the game."

Streamwood (1-8) opened the next possession on its own 35-yard line and marched up the field until Alex Morrow took a pitch and scored from 8 yards out to make the score 14-9 with 6:23 left in the third.

"It was a sweep around the left side and I just was able to get around the corner to score," said Morrow, who led Streamwood with 72 rushing yards. "That was a big momentum change. But after that we gave it right back to them."

Streamwood appeared like it was going to take the lead, as the Sabres held the Rams to only 3 plays. A punt put the ball on Streamwood's 42.

On second down, Grayslake Central's Kristen Meehan intercepted a pass and returned it 12 yards to give the Rams the ball on the 30.

Three plays later, the Rams looked like they were going to score, but the Sabres' Frank Liquori intercepted a pass right at the goal line to end the scoring threat.

"We just couldn't get it turned around," Streamwood coach Cal Cummins said. "We held them in the second half, but we just couldn't come up with the big plays."