CL South rolls over Huntley
Crystal Lake South was looking for a quick start to Friday’s football game against Huntley.
Brad Walovitch gave the Gators that quick start — literally.
Walovitch returned the opening kickoff 85 yards and the Gators never looked back rolling to a 48-12 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division victory.
“It started with the kickoff return,” Gators’ coach Chuck Ahsmann said. “(Huntley) is a team with their backs against the wall. They needed to get up right away. The score kind of took the air out of their sails.”
Huntley (0-4, 0-2) caught a huge break early in the game when Gabriel Ortiz picked off Gators’ quarterback Austin Fowler on South’s first offensive series. Ortiz’ return set up Huntley at the South 28-yard line.
Huntley scored the next play after Ethan Connor ran to the 12-yard line, fumbled and the ball was recovered. Davis broke loose on the final 16 yards for the score and a missed extra point but kept South (4-0, 2-0) up 7-6.
The Gators would then force 4 turnovers and score 35 more points in the first half. Huntley managed minus 5 yards of offense in the first half and finished the game with minus 10 yards of total offense, all coming on the ground.
Connor finished with 27 rushing yards, but the Gators’ 3 sacks and 5 Huntley fumbles kept the Red Raiders in negative yardage for the game.
“They were able to get some defensive line pressure on us,” Red Raiders’ coach Matt Gehrig said. “We were getting beat up front.”
The defensive line push set in motion a pair of interceptions from Walovitch, who picked off Huntley quarterback Jake Brock twice in the first half.
“Our defensive line was getting pressure,” Walovitch said. “(Brock) got forced to throw it up. The safety (Branden Chrystal) had the seam and it left me in 1 on 1.”
Karl Mikulec ran in touchdowns of 21 and 1 yards and Zevin Clark added a 7-yard scoring run.
Fowler (6-for-11, 104 yards, 3 touchdowns, 2 interceptions) hooked up with Will Ahsmann twice on passes of 18 and 19 yards. Fowler added a score on a 27-yard pass to Denton Delgado which set up a 48-6 lead and what should have been a running clock.
The Red Raiders delayed the clock temporarily as Johnny Walker took the ensuing kick off 89 yards to the house.