Prairie Ridge erases 14-point deficit, beats CL South
Prairie Ridge needed something to slow down Crystal Lake South, which had hit the Wolves with big pass plays early and built a two-touchdown lead.
Wolves coach Chris Schremp tried not to be overly concerned.
“Don't panic,” Schremp said. “Make sure the kids don't panic. Stay the course. Don't force the game, there were three quarters left. I know we have a solid defense. I really thought we'd make a big play to get the momentum back, we just had to weather that storm.”
Prairie Ridge did just that.
The Wolves scored 17 quick points to take a halftime lead and did not let up in the second half, adding three more touchdowns for a 38-14 Fox Valley Conference victory Friday night.
“That's all it took,” defensive lineman Gavin Tinch said. “The offense got some points on the board, we hit that field goal, that's all the momentum we needed. It was all a team effort. It was a swarm.”
Prairie Ridge quarterback Joey Vanderwiel scored on a 4-yard run to make it 14-7 with 4:27 remaining in the first half. The Wolves (2-0, 2-0 FVC) forced the Gators (1-1, 1-1) into a three-and-out, then Vanderwiel hit Eli Loeding for a 38-yard gain to set up Dom Creatore's 10-yard touchdown run.
The Wolves then got the ball with 22 seconds left and Vanderwiel hit Loeding, who pitched back to Luke Vanderwiel on a hook-and-lateral play that covered 50 yards to South's 3 with a fraction of a second left. Gabe Porter booted a 20-yard field goal for a 17-14 lead.
“It was just the little things,” Joey Vanderwiel said. “Everyone has to do their job. When we were moving, everybody did their one-eleventh and worked together. Those passes really helped out. Eli ran a really good route there and had a nice pitch on the hook-and-lateral.”
From that point on, it was all Prairie Ridge.
“We kind of shot ourselves in the foot a little bit, some dropped plays,” Gators coach Rob Fontana said. “We dropped a ball on third down and on fourth down and Prairie Ridge went down and scored.
“We gave up a special teams touchdown. Guys were getting dinged up, just kind of the breaks of the game today.”
South's Colton Hess, who caught two touchdown passes from quarterback Caden Casimino, missed some plays with an injury in the third quarter, so kicker JJ Semradek was in to punt.
Semradek had some trouble with a high snap, and when he gathered the ball, the Wolves' Jace Kranig was all over him. The ball popped loose and Logan Thennes grabbed it in the air and ran it in 17 yards for the score.
Fullback Jack Finn added touchdown runs of 21 and 65 yards in the fourth quarter, finishing with 25 carries for 169 yards.
Prairie Ridge, which is No. 2 in The Associated Press Class 5A poll, won its opener 6-0 over Jacobs with 138 yards of offense. The Wolves had 233 at halftime and finished with 359.
“It was kind of a confidence level for everybody,” Schremp said of the offense. “Settle in and we got this. Playing together. Joey being the new quarterback and Finn the new fullback. It takes some time to jell. Jacobs had a phenomenal defense against us last week.”
Casimino completed 27-of-43 passes for 285 yards, with Hess grabbing eight for 107 yards. Michael Prokos had five receptions for 65 yards, but missed most of the fourth quarter with an ankle injury.