Yorkville runs over Kaneland

It had been 12 years and three conferences since the last time Yorkville beat Kaneland back in 2002.

Or as Foxes coach Karl Hoinkes put it ...

"These kids were four years old the last time we beat Kaneland," said Hoinkes who has been around for just three seasons of this one-sided series after coming from Oswego.

"They don't know about history. We wanted to make history ourselves from this time on. That stuff is for newspapers and old grumpy men in a bar. We're living for today."

The Foxes made the most of their moment Friday, especially running back Mike Kurtz. The senior ran for a staggering 306 yards and 4 touchdowns in the Foxes' convincing 41-25 win at Campbell Field.

Yorkville only completed 1 pass for 2 yards but got plenty of big chunks on the ground. Kurtz carried 26 times, gaining 202 of those yards in the second half including a pair of 65-yard touchdown runs and a 20-yard score.

Kaneland couldn't bring down Kurtz in the open field and when he broke free the Knights couldn't catch him.

"They were calling out our plays on the line so for us to move the ball when they knew our play was incredible," Kurtz said.

Yorkville (4-0, 1-0 in the Northern Illinois Big XII East) handed Kaneland (2-2, 0-1) its second consecutive loss, capitalizing on three interceptions.

"We've been pretty good at that so far this year," Kaneland coach Tom Fedderly said of the turnovers. "All the credit to them. They played a great game and they executed and we didn't."

The Knights led just once, 19-14 with 5:51 left in the third quarter on the second of Isaac Swithers' 1-yard touchdown runs.

That scored capped a rally from 14-3 down as the Knights appeared to have seized control.

But that lead lasted for all of one play as Kurtz took the next handoff down the left sideline for the first of his two 65-yard jaunts.

Brody Sharp followed with the second of his two interceptions, and quarterback Nathan Scott's naked bootleg on a 4th-and-1 play worked perfectly for an 11-yard touchdown and a 28-19 lead.

"That was probably the turning point of the ballgame," Hoinkes said.

"That (falling behind) fired me up," Kurtz said. "I just wanted to score four more times. When they scored that just pumps me up and pumps up the whole offense to go and score again."

The Foxes weren't through. After another quick stop, Kurtz got the ball on 3rd-and-10 and raced for another long touchdown run - Yorkville's third touchdown in 3 minutes, 47 seconds, to go up 35-19.

Kurtz had one more score left in him, a 20-yarder when he broke several tackles to make it a 41-19 lead with 9 minutes left in the game on his final carry of the night.

"They just executed up front," Fedderly said. "We'll take a look at the tape. We'll just have to take a look at ourselves and see what we have to correct."

Knights quarterback Jake Marczuk tossed a 39-yard touchdown pass to Tanner Robertsen with 6:51 remaining but it was too little, too late. Marczuk completed 20 of 25 passes for 257 yards and rushed for a team-high 68 yards.

"They are a good football team and I think we proved we are a pretty good football game," Hoinkes said. "I thought we played a little soft at times but we got the three turnovers when we needed them."

Kurtz, who suffered a concussion in Week 4 a year ago, opened the scoring with a 7-yard run after the Foxes intercepted Marczuk on the third play of the game.

Kaneland moved the ball well early but settled for 25- and 20-yard field goals from Drew Franklin.

Trailing 14-6, Isaiah Baerenklau helped Kaneland get back in the game with an interception late in the second quarter that eventually led to a Swithers touchdown run that pulled the Knights within 14-13 at halftime.

"We're 2-2 and we have a young team and we're going to try to keep plugging along and keep improving," Fedderly said.