Vernon Hills scores early, often in big victory
Sitting on a long metal bench along the Vernon Hills' sideline on Saturday afternoon was a slew of idle helmets. They were lined up one after another and facing forward, as if they were watching the action on the field just like their owners were.
The helmets belonged to the Cougars' starters, who didn't need them after halftime of their Class 5A first round IHSA state playoff game against Chicago Brooks, which was held on the artificial turf at Libertyville High School because of sloppy field conditions at Vernon Hills.
The sixth-seeded Cougars scored early and often en route to a 48-0 victory over No. 11 Brooks that quickly became a foregone conclusion.
Up 42-0 at the break, Vernon Hills pulled its starters for the second half and the reserves operated under a running clock.
"It was a lot of fun playing on the turf today," said Vernon Hills senior wide receiver Zach Kisley, who hauled in a 26-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Steve Nelson and, as the team's place-kicker, was busy booting extra points. "We're going to take some momentum from this game."
The Cougars (8-2), hope to be able to use it in their next game, a second-round contest this weekend at No. 3 Glenbard South (8-2), which earned a 35-14 first-round victory over No. 14 Rochelle on Saturday.
"Just to get a playoff win and keep moving on is still big," Vernon Hills coach Tony Monken said of the lopsided victory. "In the playoffs, you still have to play with the understanding that if you lose, your year is done."
Vernon Hills wasn't in any danger of that.
DaVaris Daniels opened the floodgates just three minutes and five plays into the game when he hauled in a 9-yard touchdown pass from Nelson.
The Cougars scored twice more before the end of the first quarter, on an 18-yard run by Brian Palmer (game-high 97 yards on 11 carries), and an exhilarating 50-yard punt return by Evan Spencer.
It was the first punt return for a touchdown in a varsity game for Vernon Hills since 2000, the year the school opened.
"I haven't done that (returned a punt for a touchdown) since freshman year," Spencer said with a smile on his face. "I caught it and there was a great wall (of blockers) and I only had one guy to beat.
"We were just ready today. We definitely came out ready to play."
It was exactly the kind of effort Vernon Hills needed.
In their regular-season finale last week, the Cougars got waxed by Lake Zurich 42-0.
"We got embarrassed," said Spencer, who also caught a 19-yard pass against Brooks. "It's good that we came back after a loss like that and played like we did today."
The Cougars went on to score 3 more touchdowns in the second quarter - a Nelson 1-yard run, Kisley's 26-yard reception and another 18-yard run by Palmer.
But it wasn't just the offense that was on a roll.
Led by veteran linebacker E.J. Lannan, the Cougars were relentless on defense, and they held Brooks to just 1 first down and 16 total yards in the first half.
Brooks' overall production wasn't much better. The Eagles finished with 3 first downs and just 63 yards.
"Our motto is 'Picket Fence.' We don't let anything outside," said Kisley, also a defensive back. "Our outside guys keep the outside contained and move everything inside. Our goal was definitely to shut them down."
Mission accomplished. In fact, Brooks even had a hard team moving the ball on the Cougars' reserves.
Meanwhile, the Vernon Hills offensive reserves capped off the scoring when Grady Skeoch ran in a 2-yard touchdown with 27.9 seconds left in the game. It seemed like just reward for an efficient, eight-play drive by hardworking guys who rarely get a whiff of the end zone.
"We just ran into a very tough team, a very good team from top to bottom," Brooks coach James Brown said. "And what a first-class act. They could have run the score up and they didn't. I appreciate that more than anything. That's first class."