Crystal Lake South 13, McHenry 7
Two football teams, 6-2, last game of the season, playing for a better playoff seed -- good game right?
Wrong.
McHenry and Crystal Lake South treated their fans to a classic defensive showdown as both fought tooth and nail, until the Gators came up with the right firepower to defeat McHenry 13-7 in this Fox Valley Conference Valley Division matchup in Crystal Lake.
With both teams trading away punts and interceptions, Crystal Lake South found the end zone with Derek Mortensen, who rushed for 58 yards, to tie it up at 7 with just 6:24 left in the game. At that point, it was the only score since the first quarter, when McHenry struck first with Quarterback Ryan Michel connecting with Zach Borter on a 15-yard touchdown pass,capping off a 7-play drive midway through the first quarter.
The rest of the game would go to the defenses, as McHenry held CL South's Colin Masterson and Derek Mortensen to just 58 yards a piece. South however held fullback Mark Iglesia to just 37 yards also.
"We struggled from time to time with execution," said Warriors coach Tim Beagle.
Execution was the key to success in the fourth quarter, and South would execute down the stretch. After South's game-tying touchdown, their defense held them to a three-and-out, forcing the Warriors to punt back the ball, who were already deep within their own territory. South, knowing it need to score in the last five minutes, used four different players to run the ball, to eventually get a one yard touchdown from Quarterback Ian Ormseth to give the Gators a 13-7 lead.
McHenry had one last chance with 10 seconds to go from the Gator 37, but Dan Lapp earned his second interception of the game and sealed an important victory, not just for playoff seeding, but for confidence going into round one for next week.
"I was in the right place at the right time," Lapp said.
Lapp picked off Tyler Marunde (5 for 9, 82 yards) twice to cap off what had been a great game for the Gators defense.
"Our defense (really) stepped up, the defense played the way it can play all season," Ormseth said.
"Dan Lapp has 2 picks, Ryan Forrestal stopped the same play they scored on the other end (offense) because we went to a cover three defense," said Defenisve Coordinator Chuck Ahsmann.
Crystal Lake South's defense, who led up 54 point to Cary-Grove last week, allowed only 7 points this week, forcing 2 interceptions and shutting down the Warriors run game.
"Defense is about attitude. Our guys were aggressive against going after the ball," Ahsmann said.
South only held McHenry to 96 yards rushing, which to coach Tim Beagle, hurt them in the end.
"We need to execute better when we need to run the ball."
McHenry didn't do that bad against the run either, holding South's run total to just 160 yards, way below South's normal average.
"They're an explosive team, I was surprised they didn't put up a lot of points up on the board, they have a very good offense, very good defense, they're a very good team," Beagle said.
Although Gators coach Jim Stuglis thought the game was going down to defense, shows the importance of winning the last game of the regular season.
"It's a huge asset going into the playoffs with a win. You're not second guessing. You know what you can do, and you just have to tweak it."
"When we do this every night, and play well together, we think we can beat every team," said lineman Jordan Smith.
In spite of this McHenry-South match up being one for the ages on the defensive side, with scores coming in the first and fourth quarters, Ian Ormseth knew the key to the game was his offensive line, which held their own all game.
"The line kept blocking the whole game, from Ryan Kuhn to Danny Walsh, Charlie Wagner, Jordan Smith, Trace Hummel, Joe Carmody, Vince Bendetto to Blake Randolph. They all helped out, they all blocked."
HUNTLEY
Marmion 24, St. Edward 14: Marmion entered St. Edward's Greg True Field clinging to postseason life.
St. Edward played like it was.
The Green wave played a near flawless first half and took a 6-0 lead at halftime. A rejuvenated Marmion came alive in the second half and held off the Green Wave 34-14 to improve its playoff hopes. Marmion (5-4, 3-2) coach Dan Thorpe figured his team with 38 playoff points, which should be enough to qualify, although last year the Cadets were forced to watch the playoffs with a 5-4 mark.
"We had a lot to play for," said Marmion receiver/defensive back Manny Juarez. "(But) We were feeling like this last year too."
If it wasn't for the second half, St. Edward (1-7, 1-6) could have forced the Cadets to watch the playoffs this season as well.
Marmion scored 24 points in the second half, including 10 unanswered points in the fourth quarter. The Cadets also pickoff Green wave quarterback Ryan Gilbert 3 times in the second half.
"I was happy with how they stepped it up," Thorpe said of his team's second half efforts. "We've been a Jeckel and Hyde team and we did a Jeckel and Hyde in a game."
Mr. Hyde was capped off with kicker Alex Picini's 27-yard field goal with just 2:39 remaining to put the Cadets up by 10.
Bobby Winkel scored his second touchdown of the game to put the Cadets ahead for good on a 3-yard run with 7:16 left to play.
Moises Quiroga ( 23 rushes, 83 yards) scored on a 1-yard run on the Green Wave's previous possession. Gilbert found Nevin Bens on the 2-point conversion to tie the game at 14 with 11:30 remaining. The Green Wave's next two drives ended with interceptions.
"The kids were pretty fired up," St. Edward coach Mike Rolando said. "We had the momentum for a good portion of the game. We had wide-open opportunities. We could have scored about 5 touchdowns."
Marmion took a 14-6 lead after a pair of third-quarter touchdowns. Winkel scored on a 4-yard run with 9:36 left in the third quarter. Quarterback Ricky Bird found Juarez on a 42-yard bomb with 2:18 left in the third to put the Cadets up 14-6. The drive was set up by Colin Hirsch's interception.
The Green Wave took an early lead after Gilbert found receiver Cory Diaz (3 catches, 51 yards) of a 20-yard scoring pass. A failed extra point allowed the Cadets to take 7-6 lead on their first scoring drive.
St. Edward rand 23 (37-14) more offensive plays than Marmion in the first half and out gained the Cadets 130-39. Senior Matt Ardiente finished his career with 84 yards on 10 carries.
"We were close tonight, but we had some things go wrong" Gilbert said. "We had a good first half."
-- Matt Stacionis
Huntley 40, Grayslake C. 0: Midway through the season, Huntley coach Steve Graves decided to make some adjustments to his team's offense.
"We knew that we had a lot of running backs so we just decided to stick to the run the rest of the season," Graves said. "The kids played real good football the last two-thirds of the season and we were hoping that they would go out like that."
"That" would be 290 yards on the ground, as the Red Raiders shut out host Grayslake Central 40-0 in the teams' Fox Valley Conference Fox Division football game Friday night.
After starting slow, Huntley finished the season at 4-5 overall and 3-2 in the division. Grayslake Central finished at 0-9 overall and 0-5 in the FVC Fox.
Graves pointed to his offensive line for his team's late-season success.
"We have linemen that make nice holes for our backs," Graves said. "Tonight we were running behind Grant Hamilton, our center Brandon McDaniel and our right tackle J.J. McDougall. Each played a great game for us tonight."
Junior back Jordan Neukirch led the barrage for Huntley with 131 yards on 10 carries and a touchdown.
"We had a rough start to the season," Neukirch said. "It was the seniors' last game of the season, so we wanted to leave it all on the field for them."
Huntley's defense also dominated, allowing only 115 rushing yards and 42 passing yards, while intercepting three passes.
Austin Drougas played a good game both on offense and defense.
He rushed for 56 yards and scored on a 30-yard interception return.
Neukirch capped a 37-yard drive in the first quarter by scoring from 7 yards out.
After the Red Raiders kicked off, Drougas made his interception to make the score 14-0 with 8:33 left in the first quarter.
Running back Rich Smith led Grayslake Central with 123 ruishing yards.
"Obviously this is not the way we wanted to end the season," Rams coach Nick Goshe said. "The seniors didn't play their best in the first half and then it was too little too late to end the game.
But we did get a little look at the future. We have to do a lot of work in the weight room during the off-season."
-- Irv Solomon