Sycamore runs past Kaneland

The Kaneland football team didn't have an answer for Sycamore's Marckie Hayes.

They didn't have one for Joe Dougherty either.

The pair of senior running backs combined for 384 rushing yards and 5 touchdowns as Sycamore blasted Kaneland 40-13 in a Class 5A first round playoff game in Maple Park.

"When you lose one like that there's really not a whole lot you can say," Kaneland coach Tom Fedderly said. "You just have to give them a lot credit. They came out and really played a good ballgame."

Sycamore (7-3) needed just 6 plays on its first possession to find the end zone. Hayes took it in from 9 yards out to give the Spartans a 7-0 advantage.

The Knights roared right back though, tying the game at 7-all on a 43-yard touchdown pass from Joe Camiliere to Taylor Andrews with 5:33 left in the opening quarter. While it appeared at that moment that this contest could go back and forth, much like it did in Week 4 when Kaneland beat Sycamore 21-14, the Spartans had other plans.

Kaneland (6-4) didn't convert a single first down on 3 of its 4 final drives in the first half while Sycamore found the end zone in 4 of its 5 remaining possessions. Hayes had another 9-yard touchdown run while Dougherty added touchdown runs of 51 yards and 29 yards.

The Dougherty scores came on counter plays, a new wrinkle recently added to Sycamore's attack.

"We've added a couple wrinkles, the counter and the wildcat and it keeps the defense on their heels," Hayes said. "The little things we added seemed to really be working tonight."

Trailing 27-7 with less than 2 minutes until halftime, the Knights once again couldn't convert a first down. Sycamore took over on its own 20-yard line with only 45 seconds remaining but thanks to a 15-yard Kaneland penalty and a 42-yard run from Hayes they gave themselves another chance to take on some points.

The Spartans did so, when quarterback Trevor Mathey completed his only pass of the evening, a 13-yard touchdown to C.J. Compher, to make it 33-7.

Kaneland would never recover in the second half as the Sycamore defense pressured Camiliere constantly and limited Blake Serpa to 58 rushing yards.

"There are so many things they do that cause you fits," Sycamore coach Joe Ryan said. "We finalized our coverages last night in practice. We figured let's just go with this and the kids performed beautifully."

While the Knights will say goodbye to its seniors, including Ryley Bailey, Blake Kendrick, Eric Dratnol, Sam Payne and Brett Ketza, they'll have an excellent group of back next season, including Camiliere, Andrews, Serpa, Tyler Callaghan and Eric Tattoni.