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DeKalb pulls away from Kaneland

For two quarters, Joshua Pollastrini and his fellow Knights gave the Peterson Field crowd hope that a big comeback was in the works. But DeKalb spoiled Kaneland's comeback bid with a solid second-half effort to pull out the Northern Illinois Big 12 East Conference win 49-31.

The Barbs scored on their first two possessions to get out to a quick 14-0 lead. Senior fullback Delvin Williams took it in from 8 yards out for their first score, and quarterback Derek Kyler's 13-yard pass to Zuerek Day put the Barbs up 14-0 midway through the first quarter.

Trailing 14-0 late in the first quarter, the Knights and Pollastrini started a mini comeback when Kyler's screen pass was thrown incomplete behind the receiver, which resulted in a fumble. Pollastrini was there to scoop it up and dart 20 yards for a touchdown to bring the Knights back to 14-7.

"We've always been taught in practice that you never give up and you always go for the ball," Pollastrini said. "You never know what's going to happen. We had the momentum going into the half, but they stepped up and showed it in the end. But all around, this was a good game, and there's a lot of things we can learn from."

DeKalb (3-1, 1-0) scored on its next two possessions to go back up 28-7. After the Knights settled for a 34-yard field goal with 1:33 left in the half, Luke Calabrese intercepted Kyler's next pass to give the Knights the ball back with 1:23. Eight plays later, Kaneland (3-2, 1-1) quarterback Jack Douglas found Pollastrini in the corner of the end zone from 30 yards out to bring the Knights back to 28-17 at the half.

Kaneland started the second half with the ball and drove 80 yards in six plays capped by Douglas's 13-yard pass to Alex Moses to bring the Knights even closer 28-24.

Unfortunately for the Knights, that was as close as they would get. DeKalb added 3 more touchdowns. Kyler hit Day again, this time from 19 yards out late in the third quarter to put DeKalb up 35-24. Then early in the fourth quarter Williams took it in from the 2-yard line to go up 42-24. The Barbs scored their final touchdown on Kyler's keeper with just over four minutes remaining.

Douglas ran the ball in from 9 yards out for the Knights final score of the night.

Head coach Tom Fedderly learned a lot about the character and the will to continue battling even when things didn't look very good for the Knights.

"We've got some young kids who want to be good," Fedderly said. "They just kept fighting, so I thought that was great character test for those kids and they really came through with flying colors. I was really happy with our comeback there. We came back and made it a game. There's some things I want to look at and fix, but I'm really encouraged by how things are going."

Zuerek Day of DeKalb, right, topples over Trevor Jones of Kaneland Friday night. Shaw Media / Matthew Apgar
Matt Noel of Kaneland runs the ball against DeKalb Friday. Shaw Media / Matthew Apgar
Jonathan Alstott of Kaneland, right, slides to the turf after pressure from Dwayne Lacey of DeKalb Friday. Shaw Media / Matthew Apgar
Dwayne Lacey of DeKalb hits Trevor Jones of Kaneland Friday. Shaw Media / Matthew Apgar
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