Going down to Belleville Althoff and losing last year is something Kaneland senior lineman Jake Buckley hasn’t forgotten.

That made Friday’s 55-28 victory in Maple Park even sweeter.

“We were really upset about last year going down there and basically getting our butts whooped,” Buckley said. “So we knew we had to respond. We had two really bad weeks, one for a loss, and one for a victory that nearly didn’t happen so we needed a very good win and this really set the tone for our playoff run.”

The Crusaders (4-5) tied the game at 14-14 after Caleb Harrington blocked a field goal attempt, recovered it and took it 83 yards for a touchdown.

Kaneland (7-2) went ahead 28-14 at halftime as the Knights seized momentum heading into the break.

Quarterback Jalen Carter connected with Colton Van Dyke with 8:34 left in the second quarter. Colton Grabowski would set up Carter’s 1-yard touchdown with a tough 8-yard run right before it.

“Almost everything worked good tonight,” Grabowski said. “The running game looked good. The passing game, the screens worked really well. The trick play at the end was something we worked on at practice. We set it up all game.”

That play involved Grabowski pitching the ball back to Carter after gaining sizable yardage and then more for a touchdown and 49-14 lead to open the fourth quarter.

Brady Brown’s 1-yard run with 3:29 remaining finished the scoring.

Belleville Althoff was looking for a victory to get into the postseason. Last year’s team went undefeated winning the Class 1A state championship.