Smith strikes quickly as Antioch tops Wauconda

Stephen Smith made himself feel at home awfully quickly on a homecoming Friday night in Antioch.

The Sequoits senior defensive back picked off one the best quarterbacks in the area, Brandon Rowe of Wauconda, and recovered a fumble.

All in the first quarter,

The rest of the defense and special teams led Antioch past visiting Wauconda 28-12 in a North Suburban Prairie contest as the Sequoits remained unbeaten.

Smith intercepted a pass from Rowe (16-of-31 pass for 264 yards) on Wauconda’s opening drive, which was his first allowed this season,

Then Smith recovered a Rowe fumble on a fourth down quarterback keeper in the end zone for a touchback with 4:49 left in the first quarter.

“I saw (Rowe) reach out at the 3-yard line and I’m not sure which linebacker popped him,” Smith said. “I just dove for the ball and got it in the end zone.

“We worked hard all week in practice. We worked hard and wanted to prove a point that we can cover the pass.”

Antioch (5-0, 2-0) marched down the field. Leroy Chapman (8 carries, 61 yards) scored on an 11-yard touchdown run to cap a 7-play, 80-yard drive which put the Sequoits up 7-0 with 1:13 left in the first quarter.

Wauconda (1-4, 0-3) cut the lead to 7-6 when Rowe hit Jake Ziolkowski for a 62-yard touchdown pass with 8:03 remaining in the second quarter.

But Chapman took the ensuing kickoff back for 85 yards as Antioch took a 14-6 lead with 7:51 left.

“I got the ball and saw a hole,” Chapman said. “The wedge guys created a perfect wedge and from there it was off to the races.”

Antioch extended its lead to 28-6 in the second half. Danny Arden (27 carries, 112 yards) rushed for a 1-yard TD on fourth down to start the third quarter. And Blake Harris intercepted a pass and returned it 74 yards in the fourth quarter.

“(Wauconda) does things that we don’t see in our division, like throwing the ball,” Antioch coach Brian Glashagel said. “But our defense came up and made some big plays. Special teams got a score. We’re 5-0 and we still have some things to work on.”

Wauconda added a late score on David Starky’s 1-yard run

“We had a chance to be up 7 early,” Wauconda coach Dave Mills said. “The kickoff return hurt us. There were three big plays, and it hurt us. Antioch does have a nice defense, but both offenses were pretty comfortable.

Mills said, “We’re a young team trying to figure out what to do.”