Home Sweet Home

Evergreen Park came to Kaneland with more than a bus load of good football players. They brought a great game plan. Coach Brett Nelson had his team prepared for Kaneland's explosive offense and all but shut the Knights down. But a determined Kaneland team proved again that they refuse to lose and nothing is going to get in their way of their mission - Another State Championship for their school.

But the first half was anything but pretty for the Mighty Knights as they turned the ball over four times. Twice they fumbled within the Mustang's 10 yard line. And twice quarterback Eric Delaney was picked off. Was was so amazing about Delaney's interceptions was that coming into the game he had had only two interceptions all year and in just one half he had matched that number.

Not only did the turnovers hurt the Knights but the offense could only muster 29 rushing yards. Not only that but passing game was limited to only six receptions of with four went to P.J. Fleck.

Nelson stacked up his defense up the middle challenging Kaneland to run outside. But the Knights kept running into the teeth of Nelson's plan, as poor Kyle Schrader kept trying to gain yardage between the tackles. As a result the Knights where limited to just 20 first half offensive plays while Evergreen Park had 48.

If it wasn't for a Billy McKeown's 17 yard TD catch near the end of the first quarter the Knights wouldn't have scored in first half at all. (By the way, reports from the hospital is that McKeown suffered a severe blow to his elbow causing numbness. All X-rays were negative and he should be ready to go next week.)

On the Mustangs first series they were moving the ball at will until Shaun Wenz clocked running back Pat McKeown forcing him to fumble. Fleck picked up the loose ball on his own 44 and ran it all the way back to the 20.

Wenz recalled the hit. "Everything went black for awhile. For the rest of the half I didn't know if I was playing offense or defense. Once I lined up in my offensvie position and I was playing defense!"

One the Knights first play from scrimmage Delaney ran for 12 yards for a first down and then it happened.

Ryan Schrader running towards the end zone lost the ball. Mustangs football. But with the Mustangs unable to move the ball they had to punt. Punting into the wind however, gave the Knights good field position at the EP 38. Five plays later McKeown gives the Knights their only TD of the first half and a 7-0 lead.

Evergreen Park comes right back with a impressive drive of 80 yards in thirteen plays to level the score, thanks to a 5 yard touchdown pass to Rick Boss from QB Tom Marsan. But luckily for the Knights the holder for the extra point muffed the snap and the extra point attempt was no good and the Knights keep a slim lead of 7-6.

The next four times the Knights had the ball nothing good happened. The first time they had a pass picked off, next they punted after 3-downs and out, then they fumbled at the Mustang 10, and finally another INT. Fortunately the Knights defense came up big after each miscue and score remained 7-6 at half time.

At half the knights made some adjustments and the second half was a little bit more like Knights football as they held the Mustangs scoreless. As a matter of fact the Mustangs never entered the Knights red zone.

"Defensively, the coaches were really happy with us," said Eric Delaney (who was 15 for 21 passing for 189 yards and 2 TD's), talking about their half time visit to the locker room. "Offensively, there were a few words said in a little stricter tone. He (coach Thorgesen) got us going."

The Knights took the opening second half kick-off and marched 70 yards down field in less than two minutes to pad the score to 14-6. The drive was capped by a 20 yard scamper by Kyle Schrader. (Sound a little bit more like Knights football?)

EP in turn also had a drive of their own to the Knights 24 where it stalled, as on 4th and 10 Marsan's pass fell incomplete giving the ball back to the Knights.

Both teams could not move down field until 6:30 of the last quarter when the Knights punted to a waiting Tom Schillo on his own 20. Schillo failed to field the punt cleanly and the Knight's Mike Merfeld recovered the mistake on the Mustang 23. Merfeld came up big and the Knights did too as Fleck caught a Delaney pass just 3 plays later for the assurance touchdown. And with only 5:17 to go the Knights had built the lead to 21-6.

"Getting that two touchdown lead made me feel much better," said coach Joe Thorgesen.

A pick by Ryan Schrader and one last stand by the Knights defense and that was that as the Knights move on to the semifinals next week at Spring Valley Hall.

Kyle Schrader, Colin Nolan, and Bryan Staker had 8 tackles each, while Shaun Wenz and Ryan Schrader had 6 more each.

"We just came out in the second half and played as hard as we could," said middle linebacker Colin Nolin. "We knew if we didn't our season was over. In any game, if you don't let the other team score, you win. No Matter what happens, we're gonna score points and if we don't let them score, we win."

"We played four quarters of defense tonight," said coach Joe Thorgesen. "And that's what it takes to win in the playoffs."

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