After Kaneland beat DeKalb, the Knights improved to 3-0 for a second straight year.

But on the micro level, quarterback Jalen Carter, coach Michael Thorgesen and the rest of the team accomplished their goal for a third straight week.

“Coach Thorgi tells us to go 1-0 every week, so this is a nice win,” Carter said. “But we’ve got to look into Ottawa — which is our next game — and go from there.”

The Knights turned a 7-0 game at the half into a 35-7 road win against the Barbs.

Carter ran for 121 yards and a score, plus was 6 for 14 with 124 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Five of those completions went to Brady Brown, who had 111 yards and a touchdown.

The defense was equally tough, recording 15 tackles for a loss and six sacks.

“I was really proud of the way the defense came out and played,” Thorgesen said. “Our offense started kind of slow, but we really came out of the half and made some adjustments. Offense took over, defense kept holding and (it was) just an overall team effort in the second half.”

The DeKalb offense struggled in the run game and quarterback Cole Latimer was hurried throughout the game. Under constant pressure, he was 12 for 22 for 152 yards and a touchdown and two interceptions.

He was hurried six times and four of his passes were broken up.

“Offensively, we’ve got to get out of our own way, making too many mistakes,” DeKalb coach Derek Schneeman said. “We have too many weapons on our offense to be held to seven points.”

Down 7-0 early, DeKalb had a chance to tie it but Latimer had a 70-yard touchdown run negated by a flag. The Barbs’ lone touchdown was a 51-yard Latimer TD pass to Davon Grant.

Mahomet-Seymour 45, Sycamore 16: At Sycamore, the Spartans suffered their most lopsided loss since a 33-0 loss to DeKalb in 2017.

The Bulldogs jumped out to a 17-0 lead early in the second quarter, but the Spartans scored all of their points in the second quarter to make it a one-score game at the break.

Playing without leading rusher and leading tackler Kevin Lee, Jayson Panganiban plunged in from two yards out on fourth down, cutting the lead to 17-7.

After the Bulldogs scored another touchdown, the Spartans answered back again. Griffin Larsen found Josiah Mitchell for a 29-yard score. Then, after a quick stop, including forcing the last missed third down conversion of the game for the Bulldogs, the Spartans and their hurry-up offense marched down to the Mahomet-Seymour 11 and tacked on a field goal, making the score 24-16 at the break.

Sycamore (1-2) didn’t score again in the second half.

“We just weren’t on the same page,” coach Joe Ryan said of the offense. “There were a lot of missed assignments and we just weren’t all on the same page.”

Mahomet-Seymour (1-2) was 7 for 11 on third down. On a pivotal third quarter drive that pushed the lead to 31-16, the Bulldogs converted a third-and-9 and third-and-13. They scored touchdowns on all four second half drives.

“You have to make plays, and we didn’t make plays,” Ryan said. “You have to make plays in those situations, especially on third down. You have to be able to get off the field and we didn’t.”

Genoa-Kingston 48, Winnebago 21: At Winnebago, the Cogs rolled to the BNC victory, improving to 1-2 on the year.

The Cogs (1-2) were up 42-6 at the break thanks to a 15-yard Owen Zaccard touchdown run. Cody Cravatta got a 1-yard touchdown run, his third of the night, for a 48-6 lead and the running clock midway through the third.

Cravatta hit Blake Ides for a 64-yard touchdown pass to start the scoring. Cravatta blocked a punt on the next drive, then scored on a 15-yard run.

Anthony Gum added a 66-yard reverse to take the ball down to the 3 on the next drive and Cravatta punched it in for the score and a 21-0 lead late in the first quarter.

Cravatta found Jaiden Lee for a 32-yard touchdown pass to push the lead to 28-6. Gum forced a fumble on the kickoff return, returned to the Winnebago 20 by Lee. That led to a 4-yard TD catch by Ides.

Alden-Hebron 48, Hiawatha 12: At Kirkland, the Giants scored the final 36 points in the game.

Alden-Hebron built a 12-0 lead, but Aiden Cooper scored on a 4-yard run to cut the lead in half. He added another run to tie things up, but Alden-Hebron took a 28-12 lead into the break.

-Skyler Kisellus contributed to this report