The Knights vs The Rebels

When you looked at the Kaneland 1998 football schedule chances are you thought playing Ridgewood on their field in the middle point of the season was going to be the toughest game of the year for the Knights.

And that logic makes sense since it was the Rebels that gave last year's undefeated Knights team the scare of the season. The Knights held a big 28-7 half time lead and had to hang on to squeak out a 28-26 victory, thanks to a Aaron Siebens block of a Rebel field goal attempt with just 28 seconds left in the game.

In addition the Rebels return 11 starters from last year's team. Moreover, it's a Saturday afternoon game at Ridgewood and the last time the Knights visited the field near the airport they found themselves tailing 12-6 going into the last quarter.

But two weeks ago Hercsher came to Ridgewood and played them even for two and a half quarters before wearing them down to win the game going away. Last week it took Herscher a 12 second field goal to pull out a win over a very tough Yorkville team. All of a sudden there are three tough teams in the conference - Ridgewood, Herscher and Yorkville. And the Rebels get to be the first test for the Knights.

Ridgewood presents a unique team. They are the shortest team up the middle and my be the smallest team in the conference. Their starting defensive tackles Tony DeVito and Richie Valdez are only 5-6 and 5-4 respectively and weigh 210 and 190. Their outside linebackers are 5-10 each and weigh 165 and the no one the defensive secondary is over 5-11 or 160 pounds.

But as you can expect they are fast and tough.

On offense they rely on senior running back #25 Sam Palazzo (5-10 180), a converted wide receiver. Reportedly he has scored 15 touchdowns already this season. The story of the game could very well be how well the Knights can contain him.

Geneva coach Mike Ellberg said after his 50-13 beating by the Rebels where he saw Palazzo score 6 touchdowns, "Sam Palazzo is the best runner I've seen. I would go to war with that kid, he's a fighter. He has such great upper body strength. You have to tackle him low."

Look for Kyle Schrader to shadow him all day.

The fullback #34 Angelo Douros (5-10 200) and running back #33 Jay Holland (5-4 145) complement Palazzo.

Senior quarterback #15 Butch DeFelice leads the offense. He has a good arm as he aired it out for 850 yards last year. He likes to throw to #23 senior John Cossentino who also plays safety.

"The main thing we do is hit the hole hard and go from there," says Palazzo. "This is what we do evey week (running) power traps. That's our offensive strength."

Against a big team like Herscher the Rebels had problems losing 42-21, while against a smaller Westmont team they easily won 49-7. Earlier in the year they wiped out a struggling Geneva team 50-13 and in a "exhibition type" game against Westinghouse they won 41-14. Thus the Rebels can score points, actually one more than the Knights.

So the game plan should be simple for the Knights. Stop Palazzo first, then get to QB DeFelice second. Play hard third. And go home happy, fourth.