Boylan ends it for Crystal Lake South
Chuck Ahsmann said it best.
"You can't beat a quality team like Boylan in the quarterfinals committing six turnovers," said the Crystal Lake South coach. "The kids didn't give up and made a run at it in the fourth quarter."
But by then, Crystal Lake South's six miscues were too much to overcome as second-seeded Rockford Boylan was able to dispose of the third-seeded Gators 30-13 in Class 7A quarterfinal football action at South's Ken Bruhn Field Saturday afternoon.
Boylan (12-0) advance to next weekend's semifinals to face Lake Zurich, which beat Elk Grove 17-10 Saturday.
Before the Gator faithful could get seated, the visiting Titans had a 17-0 lead.
After stopping Crystal Lake South (10-2) on 3 plays, the Titans got the ball on their own 45. On its first play Boylan's Lamont Toney hooked up with DeMarcus Vines for a 54-yard pass that took the ball to the 1-yard line. On the next play Tyreis Thomas scored from a yard out to give Boylan the early lead with 9:12 left in the first quarter. The extra point failed and Boylan led 6-0.
On the Gators' first play after the Titans' touchdown, quarterback Austin Fowler tried to connect with Brad Walovitch but safety Peter Cimino picked off the pass at midfield. It was the first of 3 interceptions for the Boylan safety, who also recovered a fumble.
Boylan needed 3 plays to score. The drive which was aided by a 33-yard pass from Toney to Vines and was capped by a 1-yard run by Thomas. Thomas scored on a 2-point conversion and the Titans led 14-0 with 8:09 left.
Sean Slattery split the uprights from 27 yards out with 5:18 left in the quarter and Boylan led 17-0 after 12 minutes. That was also the score at halftime.
Thomas, who led Boylan with 99 yards on 19 carries scored his second touchdown of the game on a 4-yard run with 8:18 left in the third quarter. The extra point failed and the visitors from Rockford led 23-0 after 3 quarters.
But the Gators didn't give up. South finally got on the scoreboard with 10:21 left in the game on an 8-yard pass from Fowler to Eric Schiller to make the score 23-7.
After Walovitch recovered his own onside kick at midfield, the Gators got even closer to Boylan.
The Gators needed less than 3 minutes to score, capped by a 1-yard run from Reese Dziedzic. The attempt for 2 points failed and the Gators trailed 23-13 with 7:32 left. South couldn't get any closer.
"Getting off to an early 17-0 lead against a great Crystal Lake South team was a blessing I didn't expect," said Boylan coach Dan Appino. "We knew they would make a comeback and we would have to play four tough quarters. "
Walovitch ended his career with 6 catches for 91 yards.
"We were picked to finish fourth in the conference," said Walovitch. "We came together as a team."