One guy was on everyone’s mind on Friday night in Maple Park.

And one point proved to be the difference between Kaneland and Rochelle.

Roman Villalobos rushed for three touchdowns and the Hubs earned an emotional 21-20 win playing for junior running back Dylan Manning, who remains hospitalized after suffering a head injury last Friday at Morris.

“I had a lot of emotions this week along with the team,” Villalobos said. “We knew we just had to stay together. And, you know, we weren’t even focused on the outcome, it was more about playing for Dylan, a tribute to him. Like our shirts say, ‘Play like Dyl’ and that’s exactly what we did and came out with the win.”

Rochelle (4-3, 2-2) had the ball for nearly 35 of the 48 minutes, eating away clock with a pair of lengthy scoring drives of 9:16 and 12:33 as well as a 7-minute drive to open the game that ultimately resulted in the Hubs punting.

“We just couldn’t get them off the field,” Kaneland coach Mike Thorgesen said. “That wing-t offense. It’s either you can or you can’t, and we came close, and we got them in third and fourth downs, but we just kept giving up first downs. That’s their formula and they wanted it tonight, you could tell, and I think our kids did, too. I think we played to win for sure, came up a point short.”

Carter Grabowski’s 11-yard touchdown with 2:45 remaining in the opening quarter gave the Knights a 6-0 lead.

Villalobos scored on a 1-yard run with 5:25 left in the second quarter and Aaron Hernandez’s PAT gave the Hubs the one-point lead.

Grabowski scored again with 3:04 left in the half on a 5-yard run. The Knights compensated for their missed PAT, getting two points on quarterback Jalen Carter’s pass to Evan Frieders who used some fancy footwork as he hauled it in for a 14-7 lead.

Villalobos got the Hubs even at 14-14 just before halftime on his 3-yard run and another PAT from Hernandez.

Kaneland (5-2, 2-2) received the ball to open the second half and Grabowski was busy, pushing the chains forward before Carter scored on a 6-yard run with 7:54 left in the third quarter.

The Hubs responded in timely fashion on their ensuing possession while gobbling up more than 12 minutes. The drive culminated with Villalobos going over the top and in for a 1-yard touchdown to tie the game at 20-20 with 7:11 to play.

Hernandez followed with the PAT for the 21-20 lead.

“These past couple weeks have been rough, I have been missing a lot lately,” Hernandez said. “I’ve been on it at practice for a while and now it’s just automatic after all that practicing and help from the coaches and motivating me and from my teammates too.”

The Knights had plenty of time to respond and were driving when Mark Green intercepted Carter’s pass at the Rochelle 25-yard line with 3:27 left to play.

“I saw him get pressured by our D-line and start to roll out, and I saw the receiver cutting across the field so I knew I needed to drive on the ball and make a play and I ended up doing that,” Green said. “It means a lot for us as a team to do it for (Dyl),” Green said. “He’s definitely in all our thoughts. We wanted to win it for him.”