Grant shuts down Round Lake

With a 0-3 start to their seasons, Grant and Round Lake both wanted to put a number in the win column Thursday evening.

The Bulldogs were the only ones feeling oh-so-good at the end of the night after putting points on the board at will and shutting out the Panthers 54-0 in a North Suburban Prairie Division matchup in Fox Lake.

"We wanted to exorcise the demons that we've been having for the last three weeks," said Grant coach Kurt Rous. "We were in all three games that we lost. We just couldn't hold on at the end, and the better team won. Today we were able to finish the game and from start to finish. We played a pretty good game."

Avoiding an 0-4 start to the season for the first time since 2004, the Bulldogs amassed 387 yards of total offense in the first half. Quarterback Justin Cokefair started the game with 71 yards rushing on Grant's opening drive of 79 yards, including the first of 2 touchdown runs.

Cokefair teamed up with Leo Minne to move the ball on the next two Bulldogs possessions. Minne capped off a 74-yard drive with a 15-yard scamper. Then Cokefair connected with Minne on a 74-yard touchdown pass to make it 21-0 in the 1st quarter.

"This week we started coming out and focusing on (minimizing) penalties, not making stupid mistakes and working together as a team," said Minne, who finished the night with over 250 total yards from scrimmage and 4 touchdowns.

Fullback Dan Hourihan (7 carries, 132 yards) rounded out the first-half scoring for Grant (1-3 overall, 1-1 Prairie) with touchdown runs of 69 and 33 yards respectively.

"We had an exceptional gameplan," said Hourihan. "The coaches always draw up an excellent game plan. It all comes down to execution."

Round Lake (0-4, 0-2) was able to manage just over 55 yards of offense in the first half, but had better success in the second half behind the running of Nick Olsen (12 carries, 41 yards) and Edgar Rivera (8 carries, 32 yards).