Sycamore takes control in 2nd quarter, blanks L-P

SYCAMORE – Already up by 10 points in the second quarter, Sycamore came up with two key stops on fourth down deep in La Salle-Peru territory.

The Spartans capitalized on the short fields as Sycamore took control in a 23-0 victory in a Kishwaukee River/Interstate 8 White game Friday.

“That was a huge momentum swing,” Sycamore linebacker Kiefer Tarnoki said about the fourth-down stops. “It gives us our offense more motivation to get going and score. It’s a good feeling.”

The Spartans were up, 10-0, on a 43-yard field goal by Kaden Ladas and a 2-yard touchdown run by Nathaniel Altepeter when the Cavaliers decided to go for it on fourth-and-3 from their own 39.

L-P quarterback Sean Whitfield pitched to Tre’von Hunter, but the senior couldn’t get the corner as Tarnoki stopped him for a 1-yard loss.

On Sycamore’s first play, quarterback Elijah Meier connected with a wide-open Sam Carlson for a 38-yard touchdown pass and a 17-0 lead with 5:42 left in the first half.

L-P faced fourth-and-1 on its own 33 on its next drive, and Dominic Bills stuffed him for no gain.

The Spartans capitalized again when Zack Crawford scored on a 5-yard run with 20.7 seconds left in the first half to put Sycamore ahead, 23-0.

“Quick-change stuff, then you get a score. That’s always big,” Sycamore coach Joe Ryan said. “It kind of puts a dagger in the heart. Defensively, you get a stop, you have a short field. You have four downs, you take a shot at it. We did and we got a touchdown.”

The Sycamore defense made it tough for L-P’s running game, which was averaging 308 yards a game.

The Spartans held the Cavs to 94 yards on 37 carries.

“We knew they ran veer like 80% of the time,” Tarnocki said. “Our nose guard, Tommy Rosenow, especially did a great job holding the double team, making sure it didn’t go anywhere and letting the linebackers work and fill the holes and they just couldn’t do anything.”

It was only the second time in the plast three seasons that L-P was held under 100 yards rushing. The other was L-P’s first-round playoff loss to eventual Class 5A state champion Rochester in 2019.

“I think we’re pretty good up front,” Ryan said. “We’ve given up some yards this year, but it’s been in the pass game, not necessarily in the run game. We played the run well all year, and we thought we could tonight. They are obviously a really good running attack. They get off the ball really well. They’re hard to move and we moved them around. We made plays when we needed to.”

Whitfield led the Cavs (3-2, 1-1 KR/I8 White) with 61 rushing yards on 19 carries. He also completed 2-of-7 passes for 57 yards.

“Offensively, we just couldnt get things rolling,” L-P coach Jose Medina said. “The second half we did a lot better moving the ball, but the first half we just weren’t aggressive.

“They just came out ready to play. We weren’t ready. I think that was the big thing. I told them at the end we got punched in the mouth and we didn’t punch back. It’s something we can learn from. That’s a good team we played.”

The Spartans ran for 197 yards with a balanced attack. Altepeter ran for 68 yards, Crawford rushed for 61 yards and Carlson gained 48 yards on the ground.

Meier threw for 72 yards and ran for 20.

Sycamore (4-1, 3-0 KR/I-8 White) put itself in a good spot in the conference title race having already beaten Kaneland and now L-P. Morris (5-0) is the only other team undefeated in the conference at 2-0.

“It puts us one game closer, but we still have a lot to go,” Ryan said. “We have good teams ahead of us. We’re going to enjoy this one.”