Effort’s there for Round Lake, but victory is not

Round Lake football coach Jordan Eder may not have gotten the result he wanted, but he liked the effort that his team showed in his first game since taking over in the spring.

“The kids bought into our program and the changes are already happening,” Eder said after his Panthers fell 27-16 to Gordon Tech at Lane Stadium in Chicago on Saturday. “We just needed a few things to bounce our way today and it just didn’t happen.”

Panthers starting quarterback John Ridley also noticed the change.

“I think the core players had a different attitude when the new coaches came in,” said Ridley, who’s one of 16. “It forced us to come out to work and try harder.”

Gordon Tech quarterback David Holiday threw 2 touchdown passes to running back Marwan Smith, and Holiday ran for 64 yards to lead the Rams.

Holiday’s first strike to Smith was for 31 yards with 6:30 left in the first quarter.

Their second strike covered 47 yards late in the fourth.

Three minutes later, Holiday took the ball up the middle and never looked back.

“I just tried my best and played my heart out,” Holiday said. “This is why we worked hard this summer so that we can have a good opening game.”

Ridley also threw 2 touchdown passes. The first one was a 20-yard pass to Jalen Young midway through the first quarter and his second one was also to Young.

Gordon Tech coach Bill Jeske was happy with the opening game.

“We’re a young team and I think we’ll have a good season.” said Jeske, who knows what it’s like to rebuild a team. “It takes about four or five years before you can get things moving in the right direction.”