Early strikes carry Vernon Hills past Larkin
After a poor offensive showing last week, with Vernon Hills scoring 14 points and Larkin 12, both teams wanted to come out Friday night and make a statement before going into conference play next week.
The Royals were left looking for answers while the Cougars exploded for 27 points in the first quarter and finished with a 41-6 victory on the road Friday night at Memorial Field in Elgin.
Things got started with a bang for the Cougars (1-1) as they received the opening kick and took it back to their 40-yard line. Just two plays later they found the end zone with a 53-yard bomb by quarterback Connor McNamara to Richard Clark for the first of four scores in the first quarter alone.
The Cougars were far from finished however, using a McNamara 1-yard touchdown run and a 45-yard interception return for a touchdown by Drew Winegardner to go up 21-0 six minutes into the first half before adding an Andres Salazar run in the closing seconds of the quarter to push it to a 27-point lead.
Cougars' head coach Bill Bellecomo said that after last week's game against DeKalb he wanted his team to come out fast, and the message seemed to stick, especially with McNamara.
"We talked all week about coming out and having a quick start," Bellecomo said. "After film last week we felt real positive about this group and where we were going and Connor played a great ballgame. His decision-making was great. That was his best game as a varsity player."
The junior McNamara finished the night with 90 yards on the ground with a touchdown along with 254 yards passing and another 3 TDs as well. With his passing yards alone, McNamara put up more offense than the Royals, as they finished with 181 yards total.
"We just had a great game plan tonight," McNamara said. "We saw their safeties playing wide and that opened up the middle of the field. On that second play (of the game) everything just sort of fell together. It always helps having a play like that to start the game. Everything clicked tonight."
On the other side of the field, the Royals (0-2) struggled once again moving the ball on offense and getting stops on defense early, though they did hold Vernon Hills to just 14 points over the next three quarters, but they had opportunities early to come back.
After turning it over on downs for their first drive, the Cougars' Salazar fumbled to open things for the Cougars with the Royals' Kordell Thomas falling on the ball and giving them back the possession. But it would go for naught as they would be forced to punt it away just 5 plays later.
Larkin head coach Dragen Teonic knows his team is better that what came out on the field despite what the final score may have shown.
"They catch the ball for a big play and you find yourself down 7-0, then an avalanche of points after that, your frustrations come out," Teonic said. "We were exposed in some spots but I truly think that we did some things better than the week before. Obviously the scoreboard doesn't show it but we're making some progress there. We stopped them running late and we didn't really change up our scheme, and that is always frustrating because you ask where was that in the first half?"
Larkin finally got on the scoreboard with 5 minutes left in the third quarter thanks to a big 77-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Elijah Hernandez (99 passing yards) to receiver A.J. Hunter (92 yards receiving).
Both teams will open conference play next week, with Vernon Hills playing its first home game against North Chicago while Larkin will go on the road for the first time this year and face Batavia.