Streamwood powers its way past Larkin

Streamwood's ground-and-pound offense ground down Larkin.

Quarterback Andrew Phan ran for 4 touchdowns and running backs Sirrion Dixon and Buddy Martinez each ran for over 100 yards as the Sabres ran past Larkin, 33-13 in an Upstate Eight matchup at Millennium Field.

The Sabres didn't attempt a single pass. They didn't need to. Dixon, mostly running inside, and Martinez, usually going outside, kept moving the chains, and Phan finished drives off in the red zone with 4 short touchdowns. Martinez also ran for a score.

In all, the Sabres piled up 366 yards on the ground. Dixon ran 26 times for 193 yards and Martinez added 113 yards on just 8 carries.

"It was just all the O-line, man," Phan said. "They just pushed forward and it was all them. They really pushed us forward. My running backs, my wings, they all did their jobs today."

Larkin opened the scoring on a 67-yard catch-and-run from Marc Narvaez to Kione Williams-Sowers. But the Royals managed just 89 more yards the rest of the night.

"The kids on defense run quite a bit of stuff," said Sabres' coach Don Guindon. "T.J. Phan in the middle, Teavion Martin in the secondary, they really run stuff. I hardly make a lot of the calls, they do a lot of the stuff out there for us. A lot of senior leadership on defense."

Jakobe Strong and Darrel Luce had interceptions as the Sabre defense harassed Larkin quarterbacks Narvaez and Dontrell Maxie.

The Royals got their second score on Kaydin Clark's 70-yard kickoff return in the fourth quarter.

Both teams made big plays on special teams. Martin's 70-yard punt return in the second quarter set up Martinez's score for the Sabres.

"Hats off to Streamwood, they're a lot more physical than they've been really since I can remember," said Larkin coach Matt Gehrig. "They did a great job running the football. They've developed some big, strong kids there who've obviously committed a lot of time to the weight room, and they had a lot of returning starters coming back. We've got to get up to that level of physicality, to what they were tonight, and I think our players understand that."

After Williams-Sowers put the Royals on top, the Sabres drove 80 yards in 7 plays to tie it. Dixon's 68-yard run set Streamwood up at the 1-yard line and Phan punched it in 3 plays later.

Two possessions later, Martinez raced 11 yards around right end to put the Sabres ahead to stay.