Defensive effort powers Vernon Hills' victory
In recent years, Vernon Hills has been best known as the team that throws a pass on most every offensive snap.
On Friday in Antioch, the Vernon Hills defense took a turn in the spotlight.
The visiting Cougars stymied the Antioch offense from start to finish and stayed undefeated with a 21-6 victory in the North Suburban Prairie. Vernon Hills is now 5-0 on the season and 3-0 in the division.
"Obviously, I liked our defensive effort tonight," VH coach Bill Bellecomo said. "The way our coaches prepared them, the way the kids prepared. They were hungry. We really had a great week of practice. That was just our preparation. We played a lot of base defense tonight. Our guys just flew around tonight. I was proud of the effort they put on the defensive side of the ball."
Bellecomo felt it was the best defensive effort of the season for the Cougars.
"By far. They were spirited all week. They were upset that last year we got pushed around a little bit by them," he said. "We challenged the kids and our defensive coaches were upset. So we wanted to come out here and have a great defensive effort against them."
While Vernon Hills bottled up Antioch's run game, it also took advantage of some mistakes. A fumble set up the game's frist touchdown, a 1-yard run by quarterback Connor McNamara early in the second quarter.
A short punt helped set up the Cougars' second score. They capped a 50-yard drive with a 19-yard pass over the middle from McNamara to junior Chris Mariella.
In the third quarter, Antioch was called for personal foul and facemask penalties on consecutive plays. Vernon Hills took advantage of the free yardage and scored on an 11-yard pass from McNamara to Kiwanne Durant to make it 21-0 with 3:09 left in the third quarter.
"It was as bad an offensive night as I've coached," Sequoits coach Brian Glashagel said. "Vernon Hills was better defensively. They didn't line up in anything we didn't know. They just outplayed us.
"Fumble on a punt, turning the ball over on another drive. I'm embarrassed. The amount of hours we put in, for that to be trhe product on the field Friday night is bad. It's embarrassing. We've got a lot of work to do."
Antioch (3-2, 1-2) has been dealing with some bad luck at quarterback. Senior Dan Meade needed ankle surgery, sophomore John Petty broke his leg last week and junior Brandon Lind suffered a knee injury during the offseason.
So Antioch used converted defensive back Brandon Gallimore, a sophomore, at QB on Friday. He did fine under the circumstances. The Sequoits usually do more running, anyway, but star senior Griffin Hill was limited to 73 yards on the ground.
Gallimore had a couple of nice passes during an 88-yard scoring drive in the fourth quarter. He found Hill for a 25-yard gain, went to Ian Flatley for 13 yards, then finished the drive with a 4-yard touchdown to Kenny Grenke. That score pulled the Sequoits within 21-6 with 9:09 remaining, but they couldn't mount another drive.