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Hoffman Estates gets it done against Prospect

Both Hoffman Estates and visiting Prospect were looking at their opportunities Friday night to prove their season-opening wins last week were no fluke.

Hoffman Estates used a stingy defense and a just-good-enough offense to defeat the Knight 24-6 in a Mid-Suburban League crossover.

Defense was the difference in making Hoffman Estates 2-0. The Hawks chased Knights quarterback James Martin out of the pocket most of the night and came up with 6 sacks.

"We wanted to chase him out of the pocket and put pressure on him," said defensive end Dennis Jaydon. "The important thing for us tonight was to contain him. The big difference between tonight's defensive effort and last week's is that we cleaned some things up in practice with our defense this week."

Jaydon was instrumental in the pursuit, allowing for the other defenders to make plays. Jaydon had a fumble recovery and was in on 2 sacks.

Defensive tackle Femi Oginni anchored the Hawks' front five with stellar inside play.

"Our defensive line is not that big," said Oginni, "but we know how to fill the gaps. We were able to take Prospect out of their offensive most of the night. We pursued the ball pretty well."

"We played some lights-out defense," said Hoffman Estates coach Tim Heyse. "We played good defense against Elk Grove last week, but some penalties hurt us at key spots in the game. We have some nice defensive speed and we get to the ball."

Bryan Smith's interception at the Knights' 29 in the first quarter helped set up the Hawks score on their first possession.

The five-play drive was finished by Mekhi Williams' 2-yard run with 9:14 left in the initial quarter and a 6-0 lead.

With :10 left in the quarter, the Hawks marched 65 yards in 11 plays to score on Isaiah Cooper's 20-yard run that was keyed by Marcos Bustos' block and a 12-0 lead. Cooper finished with 66 yards on 11 carries.

Both teams struggled in the second, with bad snap miscues costing large losses.

The Hawks came out of halftime to score on the third play after the kickoff. Quarterback Kyle Krogstad (13 of 24, 221 yards) connected on the first of two second-half touchdowns. Krogstad spied Jordan Lane racing down the left sideline to finish off a 54-yard touchdown pass and an 18-0 lead.

"That was a big series for us," said Heyse. "We sputtered some on offense in he second quarter and I think that got us going."

Krogstad went to the air early in the fourth quarter, connecting with Malik Whitehead on a 32-yard touchdown pass for a 24-0 lead. Whitehead caught 10 passes for 145 yards and Lane caught 2 for 72 yards.

The Knights broke the shutout when Martin (20-for-35, 161 yards, 2 interceptions) found Ryan Traviolia open over the middle to complete a 39-yard pass play.

"They made life tough for us tonight," said Prospect coach Dan DeBoeuf. "We had some chances and we made some big plays at times. But then we couldn't finish them off. Hats off to Hoffman Estates - they were very physical with us and they made their tackles."

Prospect (1-1) managed just 20 yards net rushing and finished with 181 yards of total offense. Hoffman Estates garnered 335 yards in the win.

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