Down the stretch, Prairie Ridge pulls away from Grayslake North
Earlier this year, America witnessed an historic and exciting horse racing season.
Many of the most popular races are a distant memory, but Friday night on the campus of Prairie Ridge High School, the Wolves hosted their own thrilling Fox Valley Conference Fox Division turf race.
No, there were no animals on the field. The thoroughbreds dressed in black and gold on one side, and maroon and white on the other.
Both football teams came out ready to gallop right out of the starting gate. The Wolves and Grayslake North Knights racked up loads of rushing yards early and often before the hosts prevailed in a 65-27 victory.
Two running backs were the best in show, Grayslake North's Dami Oladunmoye and Prairie Ridge's Nathan Griffin. Oladunmoye amassed a game-high 325 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns on 25 carries. Griffin also had an impressive display, with 265 yards on the ground on 18 carries and 3 touchdowns.
"The offensive line was doing their job all night, said Olandumoye. "They gave me holes that I could literally walk through."
Olandumoye set the tone on the opening drive of the game, taking all 5 carries for 80 yards for Grayslake North (2-3, 1-1 in Fox Valley) and giving the Knights the early advantage with a 31-yard touchdown run.
After Prairie Ridge got a 22-yard field goal from Derek Greiner on their first offensive series. Oladunmoye gave the Knights a 14-3 lead with a 3-yard touchdown run on their second series.
Then the rest of the first quarter got even crazier as the next three drives were all scoring drives and only took one play. Griffin got Prairie Ridge (4-1, 3-0 in Fox Valley) close again with a 45-yard run of his own.
Olandumoye responded immediately by going 87 yards down the left for a score. Then Wolves quarterback Samson Evans (149 yards rushing) kept the ball and raced 65 yards down the right sideline to cut the Knight lead back down to three at 20-17.
The Wolves took full command and outscored the Knights 55-7 the rest of the way.
"We practiced well all week, said Griffin. "We practiced some new defenses and we made a couple of adjustments and they (the Knights) couldn't stop us."
When Evans wasn't running, he was efficient passing, completing his first 2 passes for touchdowns to tight end Dean Brown to put the Wolves up 31-17 at the break.
"Samson did all the work on those passes, he hung in there," said Brown. "All I had to do was catch the ball. We have confidence in Nate (Griffin) and all of our running backs and we had confidence in our coaching to call the right plays."
After Evans got in from one yard out, Olandunmoye raced 90 yards to bring the Knights back to within 11 at 38-27. But the Knights' defense continued to struggle at Griffin raced for 2 more touchdowns from 40 and 45 yards out, respectively. Evans and Zach Gulbransen added touchdowns for the Wolves to cap the scoring.
Grayslake North coach Steve Wood says that it falls to his team to make the changes to their leaky defense.
"Giving up 180 points in the last 3 games," said Wood, "it is up to them to take on what they have been taught, and it is up to the players to make that decision."