Kaneland's offensive line paves way to another win
Rolling behind an offensive line that features just one senior starter, Sam Komel, Kaneland's football team recorded an impressive 56-7 victory over LaSalle-Peru Friday night in Northern Illinois Big-12 Conference crossover action in Maple Park.
Six different players scored touchdowns for the Knights (4-0), who have outscored their opponents 181-47 this season.
Running backs Blake Serpa (9 carries, 118 yards) and Taylor Andrews (3 carries, 61 yards) each tallied a pair of first-half touchdowns as the Knights built a 35-7 halftime advantage.
Kaneland, which amassed 425 yards of total offense in the first half, finished the night with 574 yards - 326 of them coming on the ground behind offensive linemen Ben Kovalick, Nick Sharp, Ryan Noel and Alex Snyder.
"I was just really pleased with our offensive line tonight," said Knights coach Tom Fedderly. "They did a fantastic job with both run blocking and pass blocking.
"Joe (quarterback Camiliere) had a lot of time and our kids had some big holes to run through.
"It's a very young group," added Fedderly. "We have a freshman (Snyder) at left tackle. I'm very happy with how hard these kids are playing."
After having a long touchdown run wiped out by a penalty on their first possession, the Knights quickly got the ball back and grabbed a 7-0 lead on Andrews' 42-yard TD run behind the blocking of Snyder and Serpa.
Andrews added a 12-yard touchdown run in the final minute of the opening quarter to make it 14-0 before the Cavaliers (1-3) scored their lone points on a 1-yard keeper by sophomore quarterback Zack Cinotto to narrow the Knights' lead to 14-7.
Cinotto, the third different starting quarterback LaSalle-Peru has had in 4 games, spent the rest of the first half unsuccessfully trying to escape Kaneland's defensive pressure.
The Knights recorded 6 first-half sacks, including 2 by Serpa, 1 1/2 each by lineman Jimmy Boyle and linebacker Andrews, and 1 from linebacker Nick Michels.
"We practiced all week on getting to the quarterback," said the Central Michigan-bound Serpa, who added 4 quarterback hurries. "They've gone through a few quarterbacks so we knew that if we got to him it would be a long night for him."
Cinotto completed just 11-of-29 passes for 141 yards, while the Cavaliers' ground game managed just 12 yards.
Meanwhile, Camiliere finished 9-of-14 for 237 yards (all in the first half), highlighted by his 65-yard TD strike to Quinn Buschbacher right before halftime. The senior veteran quarterback added 73 rushing yards, including a 1-yard TD run that made it 42-7 with 2:46 left in the third quarter.
Curtis Secrest and Nick Fornero added fourth-quarter touchdown runs for the Knights, who begin play in their new conference Friday at Rochelle.
"It'll be a big game on the road against a team that we really respect," said Fedderly.