Serpa's super as Kaneland rolls past Dixon
Blake Serpa blocked a punt, had a quarterback sack, caught a pair of touchdown passes and rushed for another score to help Kaneland celebrate its home opener with a big 55-6 win over Dixon in a Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference crossover.
"I don't remember a game where a player did all that," Kaneland coach Tom Fedderly said. "We look for him to make big plays for us, and he did that."
Kaneland (3-0) took a 14-0 lead after only one offensive play. The Knights jumped ahead 7-0 when senior linebacker Nick Michels recovered a fumble on Dixon's opening possession and took it in for a 24-yard score. When the Knights finally took over on offense after thwarting the Dukes fake punt trickery on their second possession, quarterback Joe Camiliere connected with Serpa on a 63-yard touchdown pass.
On a night where the Knights didn't have to run the ball to open up their passing game, Camiliere completed 10-of-14 passes for 278 yards, with 9 completions and 260 yards coming in the first half. He finished with 5 touchdown passes. The Knights only rushed the ball twice in the first half, gaining 13 yards.
"Our offensive line did a great job of letting Joe have some time to throw the ball," Fedderly said. "The receivers also did a nice job of executing their routes really well."
Camiliere connected on a 38-yard touchdown pass to Quinn Buschbacher, Serpa scored on an 11-yard run and junior Sean Carter made a nice catch up the middle before cutting left for a 45-yard score to put the Knights ahead 35-6 at halftime.
"We started throwing the ball right away and kept doing it all night," Carter said. "All the guys have been working really hard and (Joe) threw the ball really well for us."
The only real downfall with the Knights play came in trying to stop 6-foot-2, 210-pound fullback Preston Lumzy, who collected 117 yards on 20 carries and scored the Dukes' lone touchdown.
"Thry had some good running backs that challenged the defense," Fedderly said. "But I was really proud with how the guys stepped up and came out in the second half."
It was a second half where Fedderly had the luxury of getting a lot of different players in the game, including backup quarterback Ryan Fuchs. He led the Knights with 32 rushing yards.
"These kids have grown up seeing good teams here, and they want to be one of those teams," Fedderly said. "They went out on the road where it's always tough to win and won twice, and then came home and were really excited to play here tonight and it showed."