Crystal Lake South handles Huntley
Unfortunately for Huntley, the talented Crystal Lake South football team picked Friday to get back to basics.
The state-ranked Gators were given a wake-up call in a close shave at Jacobs a week ago, a result that caused the CL South coaching staff to reinforce fundamentals throughout the week of practice. Everything from firing out low to proper positioning to footwork was revisited.
The players responded with perhaps their finest game of the season as the Gators took down host Huntley 48-14 in a Valley Division game in the Fox Valley Conference.
"We're coming together slowly, one step at a time," Vanderbilt-bound left tackle Jake Bernstein said. "I think we can get better each week. I don't think we're ever going to get to the point where we're done working until we're playing in the state game."
CL South (7-0, 3-0) dominated Huntley (3-4, 1-2) in the trenches. The offense ran 54 plays compared to Huntley's 32 and the Gators outgained the Red Raiders 416 yards to 180.
Senior quarterback Drew Ormseth rushed 11 times for 125 yards, including touchdown runs of 1, 68 and 43 yards. He also completed 5-of-6 attempts for 90 yards. Two of those completions were touchdown throws to Kenny Bambini and Kenny King.
And senior running back Bolek Mikulec pounded the Huntley defense for 122 yards and a touchdown on 18 bruising carries.
Ormseth rightly gave credit to his offensive line of Bernstein (6-4, 280), left guard Phil Hespen (6-4, 290), center Ed Atkinson (6-3, 220), right guard Andy Garces (5-11, 250) and Bowling Green-bound right tackle Fahn Cooper (6-6, 300).
"It was definitely their best game so far," Ormseth said. "The offensive coordinator (Bill Altmann) was up in the box, and I think he said we got defeated on the line of scrimmage one time. That's huge. We didn't play perfect, but we played really good."
The Gators were equally impressive on defense, led by lineman Brett Barchard. The senior recovered a first-quarter fumble and sacked Huntley quarterback Tim Lycos in the second quarter. The Gators held Huntley, which played without two of its top running backs and six starters overall due to injuries, to 16 yards rushing.
The only scores for the Red Raiders came on a perfectly thrown 63-yard bomb from Lycos to James Davis, which cut the deficit to 21-6 midway through the second quarter, and a fourth-quarter plunge by Christian Cervantes. Otherwise, Lycos was forced do his share of scrambling.
"They're big, pretty fast and all I could do was try to improvise and do anything I could to get out of that rush and get to the outside," Lycos said. "But it pretty much didn't work."
The loss puts Huntley's back up against the postseason wall. To qualify for the playoffs, the Red Raiders must win their remaining games against Dundee-Crown (0-7) and Jacobs (4-3).
"They did a real nice job mixing it up," Huntley coach Matt Gehrig said of the Gators. "They came out real sharp and played hard. I was proud of the way our boys came out with a mindset to play to win tonight. We'll build off that for the rest of the season."
The Gators now turn their full attention to next week's showdown against rival Cary-Grove (5-2, 3-0), which edged McHenry 23-20 in overtime to set up a Week 8 battle of Valley Division unbeatens in Crystal Lake.
"We're going to give them four quarters of football," Mikulec said of the six-time defending FVC champion Trojans. "We're going to come to play, and they'd better bring it to our field."