Lind, Antioch hold off Wauconda
Supported by large teammates Cameron Norris and Joshua Sidare, Antioch running back Brandon Lind limped barefooted out of his team's stadium.
"Just rolled it, sprained it a little bit," Lind said.
Antioch coach Brian Glashagel said Lind injured his ankle early in Friday night's Northern Lake County Conference opener against Wauconda. Lind played through the hurt, however, and Antioch needed all 3 of his touchdowns and gutsy runs in the final minutes, as well as quarterback Branden Gallimore's pair of scores, as the Sequoits held on for a 33-29 win.
"They played hard," Glashagel said of the Bulldogs, who trailed 26-7 after three quarters. "They didn't tap out and kept going after it. I think some of our kids thought it was another day at the office, and they got an awakening."
"We just had some mental mistakes," Lind said after rushing 11 times for 93 yards.
It's Antioch's first 3-0 start since 2011, when the Sequoits started 7-0 before finishing the season 8-2.
Wauconda (1-2) played without quarterback Antonio Acosta, who injured his ankle in the fourth quarter of the Bulldogs' Week-2 loss at Riverside-Brookfield. Running back Jacob Bicknase started at quarterback and ran the team's spread option. Bicknase scored 3 touchdowns, including two in the fourth quarter. He also completed a conversion pass to Matthew Nolan.
"We were confident in what we were going to do," Bicknase said. "It wasn't working so we had to change it up, and that worked."
Nolan hauled in a 25-yard TD pass from backup QB Andrew Saccameno with 2:07 left in the fourth, but behind Lind, Antioch was able to run out the clock.
"They hit us early," Wauconda coach Dave Mills said. "We made some mistakes."
Antioch, which put up a combined 108 points in wins over Kenosha Tremper and Moline, started where it left off. Lind's 43-yard TD burst capped a seven-play, 73-yard drive on the game's opening drive.
After Wauconda couldn't do anything following a blocked punt that gave the Bulldogs the ball at the Antioch 29, the home team answered with Gallimore's first touchdown with 10:30 left in the first half, making it a 14-0 game.
Face-mask and hit-to-the-head penalties totaling 30 yards helped Wauconda manufacture an 80-yard drive that Bicknase capped with a 13-yard TD run out of the shotgun.
But it took Antioch one play to get the score back, as Gallimore (13 carries, 148 yards) sprinted 66 yards into the end zone. Trailing 20-7 late in the half, Wauconda went for it on fourth-and-inches from its own 29. Antioch's defense stuffed Bicknase's sneak, and four plays later Lind scored from the 5 to make it 26-7.
"Ego got in the way," Mills said of his decision to run on fourth down. "I was confident in our offensive line. Tip my hat to Antioch. They stopped us."
Wauconda went to a hurry-up offense to start the second half and finally started moving the ball consistently behind Bicknase (24 carries, 100 yards) and Tyler Stankiewicz (18 carries, 165 yards).
"(Nos.) 28 (Bicknase) and 42 (Stankiewicz) run hard," Glashagel said. "They're good running backs."
Bicknase's TD from 6 yards out early in the fourth got Wauconda within 26-14. Then, three plays after linebacker Alex Machon recovered an Antioch fumble, Bicknase scored from the 1. His two-point pass, after a high snap, made it 26-22 with 7:52 left.
Antioch responded with Lind's 6-yard TD run.
"We're just going to correct our mistakes," Bicknase said after Wauconda committed 12 penalties for 109 yards. "We started out slow. That's one thing we got to work on."