Hampshire soph QB Tyler Fikis leads big ground game against Crystal Lake South

Hampshire sophomore quarterback Tyler Fikis has a bright future.

The Whip-Purs QB ran for three touchdowns and threw for two more as Hampshire outscored Crystal Lake South 27-6 in the second half to post a 41-20 Fox Valley Conference win in Hampshire Friday night.

Fikis, who missed his entire freshman season with a broken arm, completed 6 of 7 passes for 220 yards including touchdown passes of 67 and 86 yards to Alex Corbett.

Fikis ran for touchdowns of 50, 18 and 12 yards.

Fikis, who rushed for 118 yards on 10 carries, could have had more, but a 65-yard touchdown run in the first half was nullified by a penalty.

South was tied with Hampshire, 14-14, at halftime.

“We huddled at halftime and went over our weaknesses,” Fikis said. “We executed in the second half and overcame adversity from the first half.”

Hampshire coach Jake Brosman praised his young quarterback.

“He missed his entire freshman year and has handled the job with a lot of poise for a young player,” Brosman said. “We preached overcoming adversity at halftime and we did in the second half.”

Hampshire (3-0) ran for 305 yards in the game led by Fikis. Corbett ran for 63 yards on nine rushes while Robert Negron carried 10 times for 53 yards. Raymond Hill had 10 carries for 51 yards and a 60-yard TD.

Crystal Lake South (0-3) rallied from a 14-0 deficit tie the score at halftime.

Junior quarterback Justin Kowalik tossed a 6-yard TD pass to Nate Freese and threw a 23-yard scoring strike to Marcus Smith to tie the score.

Kowalik completed 18 of 37 passes for 216 yards and three touchdowns. Smith, who also caught a TD pass of 23 yards, grabbed six passes for 61 yards.

Nate Freese caught five passes for 40 yards including a 6-yard TD. Brock Jewson caught six passes for 90 yards, including one of 55 yards.

Bryan Garcia and Devin Yeats had interceptions for the Whips, who now will play Huntley (4-0) next week to go to the FVC title game against the other division winner.