Batavia 48, Sycamore 27
If you're a fan of offensive, end-to-end football action, Sycamore was the right place to be Friday night.
In true video game-like fashion, Batavia and Sycamore combined for 75 points, 986 yards of offense, including nearly 600 passing yards, 38 first downs and 65 pass attempts, during the Bulldogs' 48-27 Western Sun Conference triumph over the host Spartans (3-4, 2-3). After scoring 47 points in last week's victory over Yorkville, the Bulldogs' offense picked up where it left off by scoring on their first four possessions against the Spartans.
Junior quarterback Jordan Coffey (17-of-25, 253 yards), who was a perfect 5-of-5 passing for 108 yards in the opening quarter, connected with Erich Zeddies (5 receptions, 112 yards) on a 63-yard touchdown toss to give Batavia a 6-0 lead late in the first quarter.
Coffey actually fumbled the snap before calmly scooping up the ball and firing a strike to a streaking Zeddies down the right sideline.
"We still ran the play because it didn't take that long for me to pick it (the ball) up," said Coffey. "Normally, a quarterback is just supposed to fall on it but I knew from the previous couple passes that I threw, I knew we had time. Erich just kept going and there was nobody within 30 yards of him."
Coffey's 1-yard TD run began what turned out to be a 34-point second quarter. He later connected again with Zeddies' this time on picture-perfect, 37-yard TD pass to up the Bulldogs' lead to 27-7.
Sycamore narrowed the gap to 27-13 with 43.7 seconds left in the half on Nick Anderson's 6-yard TD pass to Josh Howells.
After amassing 217 passing yards in the first half, the Bulldogs relied heavily on their ground game in the second half.
Junior tailback JR Kabba, who gained 132 of his 157 yards in the second half, took off on a 58-yard TD run on the Bulldogs' opening possession of the third quarter to make it 34-13.
Anderson, who accounted for 401 of the Spartans' 412 yards of total offense, scored on a 10-yard run to help the Spartans cut the deficit to 34-19 late in the third quarter.
However, the Bulldogs put the game away with two more touchdowns' the first coming when Ian Wallis pounced on a fumble in the end zone with 5.3 seconds left in the third quarter.
Brian Krolikowski added his second touchdown run of the contest, from 23 yards out, to make it 48-19 with 5:02 remaining.
"I'm proud of the way our kids are coming around," said Batavia coach Mike Gaspari, whose team has scored 95 points in its last two games. "The way our offense is playing, we're going to be a tough football team here down the stretch.
"I like where we sit and I love our team. Our team looks familiar on film to the kids we had last year at this point."