South Elgin clicking on all cylinders vs. Larkin
The Larkin football team's long week got even longer at South Elgin on Saturday.
Unable to practice at all on Wednesday and able to practice only on a limited basis on Thursday and Friday because of the closing of Larkin High School due to the discovery of Legionella bacteria in the building's cooling system, the Royals had trouble contending with South Elgin's polished offense and physical defense in a 56-13 Storm victory in an Upstate Eight Conference crossover game.
South Elgin senior running back Shawn Griffin rushed 21 times for a career-best 221 yards and a touchdown, quarterback Jake AmRhein threw for 4 touchdowns and ran for another and receiver Jeffrey Kamienski made 4 catches for 96 yards and 2 scores to lead an attack that gained 578 total yards.
South Elgin (4-1) established the run early. Its first 8 plays were handoffs to Griffin for 69 yards, mostly to the outside.
"We thought if we could use some outside zone, we could hook the 'backers pretty easily," said 6-foot-4, 270-pound South Elgin left guard Matt Zimmerman, who joined fellow offensive linemen Mike Ribando, Jeremy Jenkins, Brian Medina and Ian Happel in dominating the line of scrimmage. "Then with Grif's speed outside we could definitely do some damage. And we did."
The South Elgin offense gained 350 rushing yards.
"We just couldn't defend the edge worth a lick," said Larkin coach Dragan Teonic. "I mean, their slot receivers dominated the game against our outside linebackers, and that's really the name of the game. That's where they hurt us the most."
"We have pretty much every week an advantage in terms of tenacity, speed and strength with our wide receiver corps," South Elgin coach Pat Pistorio said.
AmRhein finished off the opening drive when he spotted Andrew Kamienski for a 14-yard touchdown pass to establish a lead with 7:22 left in the first quarter.
Griffin scored on a 5-yard run with 2:39 left in the first quarter, and Nicolas Farfan added the second of his 9 extra points to make it 14-0.
"We had a pretty good game plan about how we were going to spread the ball out," Griffin said. "Our O line did a great job up front and we were able to get it going."
On a day when former Larkin and South Elgin coach Dale Schabert was honored in a pregame ceremony, current South Elgin coach Pistorio - a 1998 Larkin grad who played for Schabert - paid homage with a play ripped from the Schabert playbook: a reverse pass for a touchdown. AmRhein took the ball on a reverse and hit a wide-open Jaurice Thomas in stride for a 43-yard touchdown to stake the Storm to a 21-0 lead.
South Elgin added a 2-yard touchdown run by AmRhein before halftime and a 14-yard, third-quarter touchdown throw from AmRhein to Derek Kumerow to take a 35-0 lead.
Larkin avoided the shutout with a 1-yard scoring run by Chevelle Clements, but the Storm responded with 2 touchdown receptions by Jeffrey Kamienski, one from AmRhein and one from sophomore backup Nate Gomez.
The bright spot for Larkin (0-5) was senior wide receiver AJ Hunter. The all-Upstate Eight River wide receiver made 8 receptions for 203 yards, including an 84-yard catch-and-run that accounted for Larkin's second touchdown.
However, big plays like Hunter's were the exception rather than the norm.
"Offensively, we were just trying to grasp for straws at times," Teonic said. "They did a great job of backing up, allowing us to throw underneath and making tackles. I thought they tackled real well."
John Lamont (1 sack) and Larnell Brown led the South Elgin defense with 6.5 tackles apiece, Medina batted down 2 David Hibbler passes, and Joey Rohde had a tackle for loss among his 5.5 takedowns.