Kaye, Fremd have their say against Palatine
From his time playing youth football in Palatine and all the way through high school, Fremd's Charlie Kaye always has looked forward to his games against other Palatine teams.
But last season, Kaye, who plays running back, was forced to watch the annual battle for the train tracks against crosstown rival Palatine because of ACL surgery to his left knee.
On Friday, Kaye was back in action and took complete advantage of it. He rushed for a career-high 230 yards and 4 touchdowns as Fremd rolled past Palatine 49-19 at Fremd.
"It feels amazing to be back out here," Kaye said. "Palatine is the game of the year here. This is the game, and this is the time to do it."
Kaye and the Fremd running backs had tons of running room thanks to the offensive line play of Ethan Hansen, Max Carver, Kyle Saxon, Matt Payne, Will Pankratz and Matt McCabe.
"Our line opened up holes that you could drive a truck through," Kaye said. "Any one of our backs could run for the yards I did today."
Fremd rushed for a season-best 374 yards and had 474 yards of total offense.
"We were very pleased with our performance tonight," Pankratz said. "We wanted to pound them all game long and we were able to do that."
It was a huge bounce-back game for Fremd (5-1,1-1), which was coming off a disappointing performance a week ago in its 26-17 loss to Conant.
"Last week was a gift for our kids," Fremd coach Lou Sponsel said. "We had a fake chip on our shoulder before that. A lot of these kids had never lost a game before that."
It didn't begin that way for Fremd. Palatine (4-2, 1-1) took the ball on its first possession and marched down the field for a touchdown. Zach Oles capped 9-play, 58-yard drive with a 1-yard sneak to make it 7-0.
Fremd took over from there.
The Vikings got a 13-yard touchdown run from Kaye early in the second quarter to tie the game. Quarterback Tom Josten scored on a sneak with 3:51 left in the first half to put Fremd up 14-7 at the break.
The second half had been kryptonite to Fremd this year, with the Vikings allowing 78 points and being outplayed in nearly every game.
But not this Friday.
The Vikings found another gear, scoring two quick touchdowns. Kaye scored on 4-yard run and then came back to tally on a sweet 31-yard run where he tiptoed down the sidelines and forced two Palatine defenders to miss.
Palatine tried to get back into the game when Oles connected with Johnny O'Shea on an 8-yard touchdown pass to make it 28-13 with 3:05 left in the third quarter.
Kaye and Fremd responded with two more quick touchdowns. Kaye scored on a 5-yard run and Jake Haas also tallied from 5 yards out to make it 35-13. Oles added a touchdown from Palatine and Alec Honickel scored on a 69-yard to close out the scoring.
"They came out hard in the second half and we just didn't respond," Palatine coach Rick Splitt said. "That's what it came down to. We just didn't have an answer."
Fremd's defense, led by McCabe, Haas, Jimmy Walsh, Mark Metzen, Kenny Lyke, Matt Lee, Alex Jacobs, Caleb Vail and Tommy Vannieuwenhoven, limited Palatine to just 31 yards rushing until late in the game.
"We really came out hard tonight," Sponsel said. "Good teams lose and good teams respond. We told them all week that they would never forget this game."