Antioch hands Grayslake North its 1st loss

It was a beautiful night for high school football - it was exactly what one thinks of when they think of high school football.

The temperature was stuck at 60 degrees, and both bleachers were packed - Antioch's home bleachers, and the much smaller Grayslake North opposite-field bleachers. You could clearly hear both sides, but Antioch's homecoming crowd seemed to linger on top for the night.

The lights were on, and it was Friday night, and in cased you missed it, Antioch is "Home to the Sequoits." The phrase is painted on the looming water tower that looks over the field, deliberately reminding the opposition whose house they're in. The phrase is printed on the sides of the blowup entrance of which the team runs out. "A-Town" is pasted on the chain-link fence that surrounds the field.

Maybe Grayslake North forgot. Maybe they just missed all of the signs, If such was the case, they know now, as Antioch vanquished Grayslake North 49-6, moving themselves to the top of the Northern Lake County Conference (NLCC).

If Grayslake North really did forget, Antioch running back Nicholas Day certainly reminded them. He ran for 4 touchdowns, contributing to more than half of the team's scores.

If Grayslake North really did forget, Sequoits wide-receiver/defensive-back Marshall Gehrke reminded them. He had two interceptions in the first half, one of which was in their own end zone, and the other led to a scoring drive.

Not only was it a beautiful night for football, it was important night for football. Going into Friday, Grayslake North was 4-0 on the season, including a 2-0 in-conference record. Antioch was 2-2 overall, but those two wins came against Lakes and North Chicago in the NLCC. Whoever won this game catapulted themselves to the top of the conference standings alongside Wauconda, who is also 4-0.

"It's a huge win," said Antioch coach Brian Glashagel. "It's a huge win for a couple of reasons. Number one: it's the kids' homecoming. You never want to lose your homecoming. Number two: we have a goal [of] winning the conference every year, and we [beat] a 4-0 team at home that's a really good football team."

Grayslake North snuck in a touchdown at the end of the third with a beautiful fade in the back of the end zone from Jake Donohue to Michael Jefferson. That cut the score to 42-6. Too little too late. The Knights' crowd withered substantially.

If Grayslake North really did forget that they were in Antioch, Home of the Sequoits, the scoreboard reminded them.