For Grayslake Central, Valdivia's a thing of beauty

Move over Molly Ringwald. You've got some competition.

Joel Valdivia was pretty on Friday night - in pink.

Valdivia, a sophomore running back at Grayslake Central who goes by Joey, made a pretty spin move against visiting Grayslake North that was almost pirouette-like.

As he was barreling down the far side of the field, Valdivia took on a swarm of defenders head on. But instead of hitting the wall, he did a beautiful, 360-degree spin move that gracefully rolled him away from the trouble and put him back on track.

He then sprinted 40 more yards for his third touchdown of the night, officially a 66-yarder.

Oh yeah, and Valdivia did it all while wearing bright pink socks.

The Rams, all of whom wore pink socks, were celebrating "Think Pink Day," an initiative to raise awareness of breast cancer research.

By the end of the night, they were also celebrating a 28-0 victory over their crosstown rival.

The victory moves Grayslake Central to 3-5 overall and 2-4 in the Fox Valley Conference Fox Division. The Rams, who had notched only five victories in the last five years, haven't won more than two games in a season since 2003. That year, Grayslake went 8-3 and qualified for the playoffs for just the third time in school history.

Meanwhile, Grayslake North, which was hoping to win its last two games and sneak into the playoffs with five victories and enough playoff points, has now been officially eliminated from the playoff pool.

"I just like killing North," said Valdivia, who went on to run in a fourth touchdown to account for all of the Rams' scoring. He wound up with a career-high 187 yards on 16 carries. "I don't like them at all."

But what about the pink socks? Does Valdivia like them? Are they now his lucky socks? Should the Rams wear them all the time?

"I wouldn't mind," Valdivia chuckled. "But it depends what the coaches want. Actually, I think I still like white better. White goes with our uniforms."

After a scoreless first quarter, Grayslake Central got on the board when Valdivia ran in a touchdown from 24 yards out. The Rams took a 7-0 lead into the halftime break.

Valdivia, who benefited from the big holes opened by his offensive line and solid lead blocking by Vinnie Culhane, quickly added to the lead by scoring on a 6-yard run just 1:35 into the third quarter.

Meanwhile, the Grayslake Central defense was wreaking havoc on Grayslake North, hurrying quarterback Sean Brennan and forcing turnovers. The Knights never seemed to gain any traction on their drives and finished with just 131 yards of total offense on the night.

"Their defense was good. We knew that," Grayslake North coach Steve Wood said. "Anytime we got anything going, we'd make stupid mistakes. We'd hang our heads and typical Grayslake, once we did that, we just rolled over. We've done that a lot this year."

Meanwhile, Grayslake Central has played a lot of tough defense this year.

Head coach Nick Goshe decided before the season to put his very best 11 athletes on defense, and for the most part, that strategy has worked for the Rams.

This shutout marks their third of the season.

"You have to tip your hat to our defensive kids," Goshe said. "There were some hits out there tonight and they've been hitting like that all year. We're one of the most physical defenses that we've seen. Our kids bring it. It's great to see."

In a season in which his offense has struggled to produce points and yardage, Goshe also liked seeing two 100-plus rushers on the Grayslake Central stat line.

In addition to Valdivia, quarterback Mike Gentile rolled up 128 yards on 9 carries.

"We kind of felt in the last couple weeks that we were right there kind of breaking through," Goshe said. "Tonight, it just popped for us. Great night to do it."