Crystal Lake South offense erupts for big game against rival Crystal Lake Central
Three games and 14 total points is far from an impressive offense.
But Crystal Lake South coach Rob Fontana knew his team was on the precipice of breaking a game wide open, it was just a matter of when.
Friday night, it finally happened.
The Gators erupted for 293 yards of offense – 221 of them through the air – and employed a bend-but-don’t-break defense in posting a 34-7 victory over Crystal Lake Central in a Fox Valley Conference intracity tilt at Central’s Metcalf Field.
Quarterback Michael Silvius found senior split end Noah Franch five times for 200 yards and touchdowns of 72 and 61 yards, the first of which came on Crystal Lake South’s second play of the game. Silvius added a 1-yard touchdown run of his own while running back Yeidan Ramierz added another.
“The first (pass) the ball was up there a long time and I wasn’t even sure I could catch up to it,” Franch said. “I just had to go up and get it.”
The second scoring pass came on the second play of the third quarter when Silvius found Franch on a slant pattern and the receiver tipped the ball to himself before gathering the ball and outrunning the Crystal Lake Central secondary for a 21-7 Gators advantage.
“Michael did a great job preparing this week. We put a lot more pressure on him and he responded,” Fontana said. “There are times we are searching for plays and he says, ‘What about this?’ It’s good to see that he’s starting to think along our same lines.”
Crystal Lake Central displayed a strong running attack, amassing 204 yards on the ground. Tyler Porter ran 12 times for 80 yards while Abraham Quinn rushed for 79 yards on 10 tries.
“We are sick of moral victories, but we took more steps in the right direction,” Central coach Matt MacCrindle said. “We moved the ball well, but we shot ourselves in the foot a few times. Still, we are seeing improvement every day.”
One of those close calls for Crystal Lake Central came late in the fourth quarter when the Tigers marched to the Crystal Lake South 3-yard line, but the scoring chance was thwarted when Anthony Gountanis stepped in front of an Aidan Niederkorn pass and took it for a 100-yard pick-6. It was Goutanis’s second interception of the night.
“I read the quarterback’s eyes and I knew (the receiver) had to break in because he was set up so wide,” Gountanis said. “I decided to jump the route and luckily I got it. Then, all I saw was a caravan of white (jerseys) the entire way.”
Crystal Lake South’s defense recorded a third interception by Gavin Hastings.