THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOMEcoming

Peterson Field was electric. The stands where overflowing and the town of Herscher packed up and came by the bus loads to catch this one. It was more than just Homecoming, it was as they say, a game in which "the winner takes all". And by the time the final horn had sounded there were few people left in the place that didn't know the better team had won.

But give Herscher credit, seldom has Kaneland seen the visitor stands so full. They love their Tigers and Tigers pushed on the Knights as hard as any team has all season. But in the end, no matter what Herscher did the Knights had an answer. And the result was a extra long two hour bus trip back home for the visitors.

From the beginning it was Kaneland's night. Kaneland won the coin toss and received the opening kickoff. It took only 7 plays and the Knights had a 7-0 lead over the undefeated Tigers. Thanks to a 30 yard scamper by Kyle Schrader after a Eric Delaney screen pass.

But Herscher wasn't going to roll over and play dead. They took their big line and attacked with the vigor of a Tiger. On a drive that took 11 plays and required two P.J. Fleck touchdown saving tackles, they moved the ball all the way down to the Kaneland 16 yard line. From there they attempted a 34 yard field goal, but a bad snap ended that attempt and the Knights were on the attack again.

But this was one time the Tigers held the Kaneland offense as both teams exchanged punts. An exchange that got the Knights great field position at the Herscher 43 yard marker.

After a 11 yard pitch to Schrader, Delaney threw a pass that would have gone through a car wash and not had gotten wet, right into the waiting hands of Billy McKeown for 32 yards and another Kaneland touchdown. So with only 18.8 seconds left in the opening quarter Kaneland had opened up a 14-0 advantage.

Herscher started the second quarter going right at the Knights running the ball using Matt Kapchinske and Chris Scanlon as battering rams. And if it weren't for a touchdown down saving tackle by Schrader it would have worked. The team in yellow and white kept banging away mixing up draw plays and screen passes until they had moved the ball all the way down to the Kaneland 14 yard line.

But an alert P.J. Fleck made his third touchdown saving play as he picked off a Justin Marti pass at the goal line and returned it 32 yards out of harms way. However, Herscher was able to hold the Knights and again both teams exchanged punts.

Once the Knights got the ball again it took just one play for Schrader to score. And again it was on a screen pass. But this time it wasn't only Schrader that made the big play, it was also tackle Ron Easto who made an outstanding open field block that sprung Schrader free.

Herscher mounted another drive in a valiant attempt to score before half. But with only 1:48 on the clock Ryan Schrader picked off a Marti pass and any hopes of cutting into the lead was dashed. At this point the Tigers had run 23 plays from scrimmage for the the quarter to the Knights 5, and had nothing to show for their efforts except to be another touchdown down.

By the time the halftime festivities where triggered to begin the Knights had a semi-comfortable 21-0 lead.

In the second half Herscher moved the ball to mid-field, but on a pivotal and extremely interesting call Tiger coach John Wakey choose to try for a first down on fourth and 8 with the ball at the 50 yard line. It failed!

Kaneland took advantage of the good field position and in nine plays came right back as Schrader crossed the goal line for his third touchdown, thanks to Delaney pass that netted 16 yards. So with five minutes to play in the third quarter Kaneland had built a 28-0 lead.

The Tigers just wouldn't quit and starting from their own 35 took it to the Knights, eventually breaking the shutout when speedy Jeremy Bauer broke loose for a 33 yard touchdown pass from Marti.

But that was it for rest of the night for the Tigers as they never again saw the goal line.

Schrader added one more touchdown in the fourth quarter from 2 yards out to cement the victory for the Knights and Josh Dimitri hit his fifth consecutive extra point kick.

Interestingly Kaneland gained only 22 yards more than Herscher, (373-351). And each team had 18 first downs. Actually everything was pretty much even for the game including Penalties (35 for Kaneland and 40 for Herscher) and Punts (3 for Kaneland averaging 43 and 4 for Herscher averaging 49). The only real difference was Kaneland's passing game where Delaney went 13-20 with no picks for 243 yards while Marti went 12-26 with two picks and 154 yards.

"When your get down in the red zone, you got to come up with something," said Wakey. "We just couldn't do it when it counted."

Lineman Keith Snyder summed it up best when he said, "Coming into this game, we had one goal in mind. To win the conference title. We have been building up to this all season."

And they did just that!

The sophomore Knights and Herscher battled to a scoreless tie at halftime. But Herscher broke loose for a third quarter touchdown. The 2-point conversion attempt failed and the Knights trailed 6-0.

Then with less than two minutes left in the game Scott Pitstick caught a 20 yard pass from quarterback Doug Robinson that put the Knights on the Herscher 21 yard line. With one minute left Wayne Shaw caught another Robinson pass on a third down play and moved the Knights to the 10 yard line.

Then with just 36 seconds left to play Robinson hit Rob Bieritz for the tieing touchdown. Matt Nelson kicked the extra point and the Knights won 7-6 in a real thriller.

football . Top . Home . Email