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Batavia steamrolls St. Charles East

Any hope St. Charles East entertained of Batavia resting on its laurels was extinguished long before its quarterback, Nathan Hayes, took a knee to mercifully end the first half.

In assembling an insurmountable five-score lead by halftime of the schools' DuKane Conference football game Friday night in Batavia, the Bulldogs put on a clinic at the Saints' expense.

The Bulldogs' ran 34 plays to 15 for St. Charles East on offense.

The 42-0 skunk the Bulldogs ultimately registered was courtesy of a 287-0 advantage in yards of offense in the first two quarters.

Batavia scored three times as many touchdowns as St. Charles East could manage first downs in its aspiration to run the regular-season table.

"We have lost games to St. Charles East in the past that we shouldn't have," Batavia offensive lineman and captain Spencer Prats said. "We didn't take them lightly. We have unfinished business."

"We are playing for our brothers," said fellow senior Jake Hohmann, who had all of one offensive touch in the one-sided game.

Sixty-three yards later, however, Hohmann reached the end zone to pad the Bulldogs' ever-bulging first-half spread.

Prats and his fellow offensive lineman - Will Hohmann, Jimmy Zitkus, Macquire Moss and Nick Ruiz - were operating on all cylinders to energize the Bulldogs' offense.

Batavia's twin threats in the backfield, Jalen Buckley and AJ Sanders, certainly owe the quintet a milkshake.

Buckley in particular was lethal, scoring three times, including jaunts of 20 and 47 yards.

Batavia never punted as Buckley opened the scoring on a 7-yard run in the first quarter.

Buckley, who finished with 141 yards rushing on a mere 15 carries, gladly went to the pines with the rest of the Bulldogs' skill players when his final score initiated a running clock three plays into the third quarter.

Jake Hohmann acted as if it were springtime on his way to the end zone.

"I only had one guy to beat," Jake Hohmann said. "I'm on the track team. I knew I had the speed to beat him."

Batavia, which extended its season-opening winning streak to eight games in eying a top Class 7A seed, also had a trick-play touchdown as Drew Gerke lofted a 9-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Boe on a wide-receiver gadget play.

Batavia (8-0, 6-0) was seemingly never headed when the Saints' onside kick to open the game only shortened the Bulldogs' first scoring drive.

Hayes found Cayman Manual for an 11-yard first-half completion for the Saints' first of only two first downs.

But two plays resulted in 33 yards of losses for the Saints (2-6, 1-5) to cancel all of its first-half yardage.

The Saints' Sam Singleton had a 6-yard rush for the lone moving off the chains in the second half.

"They are one of the top defenses in the state," St. Charles East coach Bryce Farquhar said of Batavia. "We didn't help ourselves by shooting ourselves in the foot."

St. Charles East finished with 28 yards on 29 plays.

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