Defense powers Grayslake Central past Jacobs
It seems that every time the Grayslake Central defense is on the field, it's almost like there's one big party wherever the football ends up. Then that party carries over to the sideline, where defensive coach Andrew Burton fires the Rams up for the next series.
Thursday night, in a Fox Valley Conference crossover against visiting Jacobs, there was one big party all over the field for the Grayslake defense, and Jacobs simply wasn't invited. The Rams limited the Golden Eagles to 89 yards from scrimmage and 8 first downs in a 20-0 blanking of Jacobs.
The victory evens the Rams' mark at 2-2 and exceeds the win total for Grayslake over the last two seasons. Jacobs dropped to 1-3.
"Defense has really been our focus here this season," said Grayslake coach Nick Goshe. "I am not going to be the up-and-down-the-field scoring coach like before. Now it's about our defensive and offensive scheme."
The defensive scheme was put to the test early by Jacobs as the Eagles busted out of the gate on a long pass by senior running back Zach Bates to fellow senior Derek Collinsworth on the first play of the game. But much like they did all night, the Rams' defense stiffened and the Eagles came away without a point.
"You have to give a ton of credit to Grayslake and the way they played tonight," said Jacobs coach Dean Schlueter. "They really took it to us the whole game. They out-hit us, they out-executed us and we never responded."
Grayslake finally scratched the scoreboard just before halftime. Sophomore running back Joel Valdivia usually prefers to run over the opponent, as opposed to running away from it. In the second quarter on Thursday night, Valdivia did a little of both.
One the first play after a Jacobs punt, Valdivia carried three Eagles defenders with him for a few yards, and then proceeded to run over two others. After about 10 or 12 yards of that, Valdivia broke free from the defense and rumbled 61 yards for the first score of the night.
"I definitely like to run over the other kids," said Valdivia who finished with 103 yards on 11 carries. "I do like to run in the open field, too, but I prefer to run people over."
The 7 points proved to be all junior Kevin Hein and the Rams' defense needed. Hein led the Rams with 8 tackles unofficially and was part of a group that held the Eagles to minus-9 yards until the final Jacobs drive of the game.
"I have taken and turned our defense over to our defensive coaches and really let them run with it," Goshe said.
Grayslake added a pair of Mike Gentile scores in the second half to put this one away. Gentile hit junior CJ Stempeck on a 5-yard scoring play in the third quarter, then closed out the scoring with a 2-yard scoring run late in the fourth quarter.