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Kaneland sharpens up with another shutout

Drew David and Jesse Balluff have been football teammates since they first took up the sport back in third grade as part of the Aurora Superstars.

On Friday night at Yorkville, both delivered superstar-like performances as the Knights ensured a running clock in the second half for the second straight week in a 55-0 blowout of the host Foxes.

After the Kaneland defense forced a three-and-out on Yorkville’s opening possession, David (8-of-13, 117 yards, 3 TD passes) wasted little time in connecting with Balluff (65 rushing yards, 51 receiving yards) on a screen pass that ultimately resulted in a 17-yard touchdown.

It proved to be just the beginning of yet another huge offensive performance from the Knights, who were also just as dominating defensively in shutting out the Foxes.

“We started off right away by pinning them back with our running game and then they go three and out,” Kaneland coach Tom Fedderly said. “We got the short field and that seemed to be the way it was in the first half.”

The only possession in which the Knights failed to score in the first half came with 23 seconds left when David pressed the issue with time running down and was intercepted by Latrell Williams. It was of little concern though because the Knights had already done plenty of damage.

Dylan Nauert scored on a 12-yard run in the first quarter to give the Knights a 13-0 advantage. They would score three touchdowns in the second quarter as Balluff found the end zone via a 6-yard run and a 14-yard pass from David. In between those two scores was a 60-yard combination from David to Nauert.

“We’ve been friends from way back and there’s a bunch of guys on the team that have known each other forever.” David said. “We’re good friends and have good chemistry and a lot of it is because we’ve played with each other since way back in the day.”

While the Knights are focused on getting better each week — even when they trounce an opponent — Friday afforded the team another chance to utilize it’s back-up players, who also delivered.

“Those guys play hard in practice and it’s nice to spread the ball around to some of the other guys,” Fedderly said.

Tyler Carlson and Isaac Smithers are two such players who both scored on runs when the running clock was being enforced.

Kaneland (7-0, 3-0) did not allow the Foxes to complete a pass, surrendering just three first downs overall and just 58 yards of total offense.

“They have a pretty good quarterback so that says a lot about the defense,” Fedderly said. “We really talked and stress to our kids that as the season goes along we have to improve as a team and I was really glad to see us not take a step back.”

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