Elgin left looking for answers after huge loss
Elgin football coach Dave Bierman was left scratching his head searching for answers.
He couldn't find any Friday night.
After what Bierman thought was a good week of practice, the Maroons were dominated at home at Memorial Field by Kankakee, losing 61-0.
"It's disappointing because I thought we were making improvements," Bierman said. "I don't know. Obviously if I had answers it wouldn't end up like this."
Elgin (0-3) trailed 41-0 at halftime and the entire second half was played with a running clock. The Maroons' first five possessions were three-and-outs, 15 plays for minus 10 yards. Seven plays went for negative yardage. Elgin finally got its first first down with 30 seconds left in the first half when Tom Roth connected with Tim Newcombe for a 13-yard gain. After the play, however, the Maroons were flagged for a personal foul and were basically right back where they started.
For the half, Elgin gained 6 yards on 18 plays. The Kays (1-2) had 293 total yards and scored on six of their seven first-half possessions.
"The first couple of games were real tight games and we just didn't execute all the time," Kays coach Cornell Middlebrook said. "We screamed at the guys about execution and keeping the intensity up. It showed tonight."
Charles Smith scored on runs of 1 and 26 yards. The senior also connected with Julian Bogan for a 41-yard touchdown pass with 53.2 seconds remaining in the first half to put Kankakee ahead by 41, enforcing the running-clock rule once the second half began. Runder Smith also had two touchdown runs and gained 74 yards on 11 rushes in the opening half. Aviyah Banks added a 3-yard score and Jalon Banks had 101 yards rushing on 8 carries before halftime.
The Kays' Jamerious Myers scored on a 12-yard touchdown run on the opening possession of the second half. On the Maroons' first possession, Anthony Lawrence picked off a Roth pass and returned it 33 yards for a score as Kankakee took a 55-0 lead. Demetrius Hill recovered a blocked punt in the end zone with 7:07 remaining in the game to complete the scoring.
The Maroons averaged 25.5 points per game in the first two weeks, but managed only 73 yards of total offense against the Kays, who gave up just 24 points in the first two weeks. Elgin's longest offensive play was a 22-yard pass from Roth, who went 8-for-19 for 61 yards, to Ryan Park.
"I still believe, even though we got shut out, that we can be an explosive offense with the people we have in place," Bierman said. "Fundamentally we have to get better. Defensively, we've got to get our assignments better."