Dovel rushes for 210 yards, leads Grayslake North past rival Rams

Grayslake North's homecoming theme this weekend is "Festival of Lanterns."

The school's football team staged a "Festival of Landon Rushes" Friday night in the Knights' 28-12 defeat of visiting Grayslake Central in Northern Lake County Conference action.

GLN senior running back Landon Dovel rushed 22 times for 210 yards and ran for a pair of TDs covering 9 and 47 yards.

"Big shout out to my O-line," he said, referring to Tyler McBride, Sean McMahon, Calden O'Brien, Alan Gielczynski, Matthew Myszka and Kyle Case.

"What I do doesn't matter."

His younger brother, sophomore defensive back Beckett Dovel, was just as me-last and GLN-first, saying "selfless play" was behind the convincing victory, one year after GLC won the Battle of Grayslake 34-7 at its place.

After a scoreless first quarter, Landon Dovel --- a running back who shifts, dances, darts and bulldozes, depending on what his dependable trenchmen provide --- opened the scoring with a 9-yard burst before quarterback Mitchell Hughes (6 for 15, 78 yards) scooted for another 9-yard TD to make it 14-0 about 7 minutes later.

That was the score at halftime.

"Landon runs hard, and his brother tackles hard," grateful Knights coach Brian Johnson said after his club improved to 4-1 overall (2-1 in the NLCC) and GLC's Rams slipped to 3-2, 2-1 on a gusty night.

"Landon jump cuts well, too, as he uses his really good vision," the coach added.

GLN led 22-0 after three quarters and got a 10-yard TD run from wideout Cameron Bates (4 catches, 55 yards) to up the hosts' advantage to 28-6 with 4:47 left in the final quarter.

The Rams scored via a 3-yard TD run from senior RB Romeo Reyes (20 totes, 68 yards) and a 15-yard scamper from QB Nick Norberg (6 for 13, 55 yards).

The visitors picked off 3 passes (1 each by JR Jones, Colton Ohm and Jayden Musial) but only scored after Musial's interception.

Junior wideout Bryce Carlson paced GLC in receiving, snaring 4 tosses for 44 yards.

"We didn't play a very good game," Rams coach Brent Pearlman said.

"What did we learn? We probably should have learned what we needed to learn before tonight's game."

GLN junior RB/LB Jacob Sweeney came down with the Knights' lone INT late in the fourth quarter.

"It was an emotional week, preparing for our rivalry game," Johnson said. "We played with a lot of intensity. We have a lot of super-intense players.

"What pleased me the most was how hard we played the entire game."