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Woodstock fields a winning effort at Round Lake

The Round Lake administration and maintenance staff ran into difficulty getting the field ready for Friday's night game.

It seems the well at Round Lake High School was not providing enough water for the field, but the staff was still able to get the surface in shape for the Panthers' season and home opener against Woodstock.

Unfortunately for the hosts, the offensive and defensive sides of the ball were unable to get into the full flow of the game as the visiting Blue Streaks ran away with a 37-3 win. It was their first matchup between the schools since 1997.

The Achilles' heel for Round Lake (0-1) was the inability to get Woodstock off the field in fourth down situations. After Woodstock scored on their opening drive behind a 6-yard touchdown run by Martin Halilaj, the Panthers built some momentum on offense. Quarterback Tabieas Young (team-high 81 yards rushing) ran for three straight first downs before the Panthers' drive stalled.

On Woodstock's next possession it converted two fourth-down plays on a 13-play drive that Halijaj (23 yards rushing) finished with another touchdown from 3 yards out to make it 13-0.

"The main thing I liked is we had the energy and motivation," said Woodstock coach Tommy Thompson. "We held our blocks really well, which we were working on in practice and we executed."

On the ensuing possession, Woodstock (1-0) forced Young to throw the ball away out of his own end zone. The call was intentional grounding and the Blue Streaks earned a safety.

Jacob Sumner (game-high 165 rushing yards on 13 carries) scored the first of his two touchdowns on another fourth down conversion as he took a pitch and headed right 41 yards to the end zone.

"I hit the holes," said Sumner, who added another 63 yard touchdown later off left tackle. "The team played really great and we just executed."

Nicholas Sundberg (29 yards rushing) added a touchdown from 4 yards out to cap the scoring for the Streaks.

Despite the Woodstock dominance, Round Lake head coach Cristo Garza remained optimistic about the performance and said the night wasn't all negative.

"I think the big thing is that we saw where we needed to improve," said Garza. "The one message that we are going to give our guys is to get better. If we get better, we can say that next week, we may be able to get off the field on third and fourth down."

Garza also was thankful to be in this situation early in the season.

"I am a bit thankful that our team has seen this situation already this year," he said. "Our players will know what to do to not fall into the situation again."

Round Lake's scoring came on the last play of the first half as Alan Espinoza drilled a 31-yard field goal.

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