Grayslake North takes a big step forward

It was a sluggish first half overall for Grayslake North on Thursday night at Wauconda in Northern Lake County Conference football action.

The Knights only led 7-0 at the intermission. But after regrouping at halftime, Grayslake North would build a commanding 24-0 lead over the Bulldogs early in the fourth quarter before posting a 24-6 NLCC victory over short-handed Wauconda.

The victory puts the Knights (4-2, 3-1) in a good position for a potential berth to the playoffs with three games to play while the Bulldogs (0-6, 0-4) remain winless.

Not having senior starting quarterback Andrew Saccameno for the game due to illness was a huge deficit for Wauconda as sophomore John Grogan started at quarterback for the Bulldogs.

Grayslake North was forced to punt after picking up one first down on its first possession of the contest.

But when Wauconda lost the ball on the ensuing punt, junior running back Jordan Curtis (74 yards on 17 carries) scored on the next play from scrimmage on a 39-yard TD run. The extra point by Nicholas Wilson gave the Knights a 7-0 lead just 2:08 into the contest, but that would be the only scoring the rest of the way in a defensive-struggle of a first half.

Wauconda senior Andrew Nolan came in at quarterback for Grogan and he hit twin brother Matthew Nolan with a 39-yard pass to put the ball on the Grayslake North 9-yard-line late in the second quarter.

But one of many sacks by the Knights led to a lost fumble by the Bulldogs and the score remained 7-0 at halftime.

"The Nolan's are just great football players, and you know you're going somewhere different when tight end/defensive lineman (Andy Nolan) is playing quarterback," said Wauconda coach Dave Mills, whose team had four turnovers. "I thought our defense played fantastic, but eventually a good team is going to take advantage of mistakes."

Wilson got the Knights offense rolling with a 36-yard field goal to boost the lead to 10-0 with 4:55 remaining in the third quarter.

Then Grayslake North quarterback Austin Martineau (10-for-19, 104 yards passing) hit senior teammate Elliott Hochstein with a 7-yard TD pass in the left corner of the end zone for a 17-0 advantage with 10:40 to play.

Andrew Nolan missed much of the second half due to injury, and Grayslake North linebacker Noel Vazquez came up huge with a 54-yard interception return for touchdown off of Grogan to make the score 24-0 with 9:08 to go.

"We've been having a slow start pretty much every game," said Hochstein, who caught two TD passes last week against Round Lake. "But in the second half we opened up our playbook and that helped us a lot."

After Grayslake North lost a punt late in the fourth quarter, Grogan led the Bulldogs on a 43-yard scoring drive.

Wauconda's Chris Ochoa (50 yards on 11 rushes) was a key weapon during the drive. But the Bulldogs found the end zone when Grogan hit sophomore teammate Mike Olsen with a 16-yard TD pass in the right corner of the end zone to break up the shutout with 2:30 left.

Both Grogan and Andrew Nolan took numerous plays for losses due to sacks and bad snaps in the contest.

"We had some self-inflicted wounds with the unsportsmanlike penalties, and we have to correct that if we are going to go anywhere," said Grayslake North coach Sam Baker, whose team had 67 of their 77 penalty yards in the first half. "The defense played well the whole game, Elliott (Hochstein) is a really good player, and he's a three-year starter."