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Crystal Lake Central runs past Hampshire

Was Jason Voorhees wearing a Crystal Lake Central Kyle Lavand jersey Friday night? Or was Lavand just wearing the wrong helmet?

Either way, the senior hosted his own Quarterback Camp Crystal Lake and was a Friday the 13th nightmare for visiting Hampshire.

Known for his arm in the Tigers’ spread offense, Lavand decided to become a dual-threat monster. Along with 2 touchdown passes, an interception and 12 of 22 for 250 yards passing, Lavand rushed 24 times out of the spread for 150 yards and a touchdown to total 400 of the Tigers’ 513 total yards in Central’s 46-21 Fox Valley Conference Fox win over the Whip-Purs at Owen Metcalf Field in Crystal Lake.

Central (2-1, 1-0) outgained the Whip-Purs 513-328, went 7 for 13 on drives and won the turnover battled 3-2, which included 4 Hampshire fumbles. But when it came down to it, Lavand was just too good, too often.

“He’s smart with the ball. One heckuva quarterback. He’s dangerous,” said Whip-Purs wideout Tim Jansen.

“He sure is,” Hampshire coach Dan Cavanaugh praised. “They’ve got lots of weapons. And we knew coming in they had a lot of offensive weapons. They spread you out, they throw the ball, they can run the ball down your throat. They’re a good football team.”

Hampshire (2-1, 0-1), which was out to a 2-0 start for the first time since 2007, didn’t hand it to Lavand right away. The Whips struck on the game’s first series, an 8-play, 76 yard drive, capped by a 38-yard pass from quarterback Nick Mohlman to Jansen for a 7-0 lead with 8:31 left.

Mohlman, who was 12 for 15 for 257 yards, connected with Jansen 8 times for 237 yards and 3 touchdowns, including strikes of 54 and 90 yards.

But the Tigers controlled the line of scrimmage and took away the Whip-Purs’ run (71 yards). Nick Kielbasa led the way with 15 carries for 50 yards.

And then Lavand stepped in. He countered Hampshire’s first score with a 9-play, 89-yard drive in just 2 minutes, serving up a 37-yard strike to Jack Ortner, as that combo hooked up 4 times for 110 yards.

After Lavand’s 23-yard TD run early in the second, his only hiccup was an interception thrown to Chris Calvin with Central leading 13-7. But Hampshire never capitalized on the turnover and CLC’s Ryan Williams (21 carries, 84 yards) punched in a 19-yard run with 1:15 to go for a 20-7 lead.

“We just need to live off mistakes of the past and go off that, start new,” Calvin said. “That’s where we lack. Just keeping up the intensity, playing hard.”

Hampshire did and 3 plays later Jansen jumped above his defender to snag a pass en route to a 54-yard touchdown with 41.2 seconds left in the half, making it 20-14.

But Hampshire let a major opportunity slide when CLC fumbled on the first drive of the second half at the Tiger 49. The Whips coughed it up right back on the next play and 6 plays later Connor Hines from a yard out made it a 26-14 lead.

Jansen did score on a strike over the middle for 90 yards, making it 26-21 with 7:54 left in the third, but that’s as close as Hampshire would get.

“I was thinking let’s go, let’s go, momentum is on our side, just keep going,” Jansen said. “But I thought we were being a little bit too cocky and kind of lost it.”

Another rushing score for Central and a Lavand touchdown throw in the fourth made it 39-21, which was the product of a pass interference call on fourth-and-7 from the Whip-Pur 21.

“The whole game the offense was clicking, “ Lavand said. “They were keying in on Williams so (the quarterback keeper) was there for us. Our line did a great job of getting up the hole for me, that setup the pass plays and the pass plays set up the run plays so they kind of worked together.”

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