The 1997 playoffs started for the Knights one day after Halloween with a scare and will hopefully end one day after Thanksgiving giving thanks. But in the end Kaneland played "trick (let them think they're going to win) or treat" and beat the Lisle Lyons 38-14.
As a result the Knights moved to 10-0. The first time ever a Kaneland football team has had double digit wins.
On the first play of the game Lisle's Chris McCullough, sent a scare through the home side of the field as he dashed 80-yards for a Lyon touchdown. It was only 20 seconds into the game and the Knights were behind for only the second time all year, 7-0. Then on the next play, Lisle picked off a Kaneland pass, to really scare the home team.
Moreover, there was more bad news for the night, so may as well get it over with at once. Early the third quarter McCullough broke free again. This time scoring from 50 yards out for another touchdown. However, the good news is that this is the end of the bad news.
Senior Ryan West then took charge both offensively and defensively to inspire the Knights. "Ryan was the spark for us," said Coach Joe Thorgesen. "He went in there like a 3-year varsity letterman is supposed to."
After the interception the Knights Defense dug in and forced Lisle to punt. The defense had tightened up, but the Knights offensive machine still needed a push start. It took them almost 10 minutes before they got their first 1st down.
But on the next play West broke 3 tackles to find the end zone from 12-yards out, to even the score at 7. The Knights attack machine was finally running.
On the next drive P.J. Fleck caught a 15-yard slant from Eric Delaney to put Kaneland up 14-7. The touchdown capped a 13-play drive that lasted over 6 minutes.
Senior lineman Brad Thill then recovered a Lisle fumble on the next series and Kaneland was on the move again. This time an 8-play drive ended with a Matt Gladd 27-yard field goal to put Kaneland up17-7 at half time.
It took Kaneland just 2 minutes to score in the second half. West topped the quick drive with a 9-yard scamper, increasing his Kaneland career touchdown record to 32.
Shortly thereafter, McCullough scored his 50-yard touchdown. But on the ensuing kickoff Kyle Schrader who has more moves than a retired Allied Van Lines truck driver, answered with an nifty 85-yard return and Kaneland was back up by seventeen, 31-14.
In the forth quarter, Shaun Wenz capped the scoring with a 17-yard counter for his second TD of the year. Matt Gladd who hasn't missed an extra point attempt since the golf season ended was a perfect 5 for 5.
Coach Thorgesen may have had the quote of the day when he said, "I never want to be behind. But, I'm glad to see how we reacted."
McCullough who was a thorn in the Knights side all night ended up with 182-yards on 20 carries.
"Our defense did step it up. Besides those two plays, I think we played pretty well," commented West. A look at the stat sheet finds Crackle who had 5 tackles and 56 yards rushing, to be correct. Take away the two breakaway runs and Lisle had only 32 total yards for the game for an average of two feet per play.
The defensive line had another splendid night with sacks by Thill, Brian Herra, Chad Herst, and LB Ian Thomas. The line also accounted for 26 of the team's 56 tackles, with tackle Anthony Parrilli leading the assault with 9. Snap, Crackle and Pop added 17 more.
QB Eric Delaney had 141 yards passing, for 1086 for the year to break Brad Larson's single season record of 1004 in 1987. P.J. Fleck had five catches stretching his Kaneland season reception record to 49 and his total yardage record to 718. Kyle Schrader had 136 all-purpose yards giving him over 1000 total yards for the season. Bill Mckeown who averaged 54.2 yards a punt, had a 75 yard no return punt that lead to Kaneland's first score.
Kaneland had 295 net yards evenly distributed between passing (141) and rushing (154). Conversely, lisle's only success was running up the middle had only 19 yards passing.
Kaneland, who has the number one defense and the number 3 offense among Chicago area schools, finally made the Chicago Sun-Times Super 25. As the 25th school, it appears those living on Wabash Avenue don't get out to the far burbs much.
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