Grayslake C. faces the music vs. CL Central

Over the last two seasons, coach Nick Goshe has slowly begun to re-establish the Grayslake Central football program as a respectable and potentially playoff-bound outfit.

With his team trailing 21-17 in the fourth quarter of a key Fox Valley Conference Fox division contest, one of the hurdles that Goshe so often mentions was just over a yard away, at the Crystal Lake Central 4-yard line.

But the Tigers' defense, which had been much more generous in the first half, stiffened and stopped the Rams cold on fourth down. The stop lifted the visiting Tigers to a 21-17 victory and kept Crystal Lake Central (4-2, 2-1) in the hunt for the division crown and a playoff berth.

"I don't think either team really stopped the other all that much tonight," Goshe said. "But you have to tip your hat to (Crystal Lake Central). They made the plays when they had to and I think we just kind of ran out of time."

The Rams did have one final shot after getting the ball back with 1;47 to play, but could only gain just a first down before turning the ball over on fourth down with one second left.

A bizarre circumstance helped set the Tigers up with the game winning score, which came on the opening drive of the second half.

Since it was homecoming at Grayslake Central, the halftime show ran longer than anticipated. With time running out on the halftime clock, the Rams' band continued to play, forcing a 15-yard penalty that was assessed on the second-half kickoff.

"I was surprised that (the officials) called that penalty," said Crystal Lake Central coach Matt Fralick. "You don't expect something like that, especially on homecoming, but we still had to execute and the kids did just that."

"But that wasn't what decided the game," Goshe added. "We still had a chance to stop them and we didn't get it done. But there was a lot of time after that too for us to still come back."

One Tiger that executed all night was junior Gage Harrah. Like a runaway bowling ball, Harrah bounced through the Rams defense for 182 yards on 20 carries and scoring a pair of touchdowns, including the eventual game-winner with 8:41 to play in the third quarter.

Grayslake (3-3, 3-1) answered virtually every Crystal Lake score, and it was the play of junior quarterback Ray Beckman that led the charge. He threw for 1 touchdown a 26-yarder to Jahard Nelson and engineered several other drives, including a six-minute, 30-second drive in the first half that gave the Rams a 17-14 halftime advantage.

"We expected that we could win this game tonight," Beckman said. "We definitely prepared and when out there the last couple of drives expecting to win the game and we just came up short."