The season came to an end Friday for the Kaneland football team in a heartbreaking 30-25 loss to Belvidere North.

And even although the Knights (8-3) had to say goodbye to their seniors on the Blue Thunder’s home field for the second straight year, senior quarterback Jalen Carter said it was a very special team.

“We had an amazing year,” said Carter, who also played for St. Francis and Aurora Christian before playing his senior year under center for the Knights. “This is definitely my favorite team. We’re all super close, and it just feels like a family. Practice every day was fun because we were able to have fun, but also lock in. It was a great experience.”

Two of the three losses for the Knights this year were by less than a touchdown. In addition to the playoff loss Friday, they lost 21-20 to Rochelle. The other loss was 42-21 to a Morris team that won seven of its first 10 games by three touchdowns or more.

They turned losses at the hands of Sycamore and Althoff Catholic last year into victories this year. They reached the second round of the playoffs for the seventh time since 2015. And the 8-3 mark matches their best record since a 9-2 campaign in 2013.

“I’m really proud of these kids,” Kaneland coach Michael Thorgesen said. “I’m going to miss these kids. They put us back on the map. We avenged two losses from last year, won eight football games, made it to the second round, didn’t really take a big loss from anybody except Morris, and we weren’t even a full team. We had really great teammates, and these kids stuck together. It was the epitome of a team. Probably one of the closest-knit teams I ever had. And it’s going to be sad to see them go.”

It seemed like the Knights were poised to break through to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2011, leading Belvidere North (11-0) 25-24 late in the fourth.

They led 17-3 early when Carter took the first play of the second half 76 yards for a touchdown on a run that started up the middle out of the shotgun and cut right. The play was successful most of the night as Carter ran for 191 yards.

“They were kind of having a light box and keying on Carter Grabowski,” Carter said. “So I did the fake and saw the end crash down, I knew I had great blockers ahead of me, and I just made a play.”

With 3:40 left, he plunged in from a yard out, then hit Brady Brown on a two-point conversion to put the Knights ahead 25-24.

Thorgesen went for the onside kick, but it went less than 10 yards, and Belvidere North started its drive on the Kaneland 42. Three plays later, quarterback Andrew Bucci went 32 yards up the right side for a score on his longest run of the night. The Blue Thunder (11-0) missed the two-point conversion.

Given the chunk plays the Blue Thunder were rolling off in the second half, Thorgesen said it was worth rolling the dice on the onside attempt.

“We thought they were scoring really easy and were just going to milk the clock,” Thorgesen said. “We dialed it up, it was there, it just didn’t go 10 yards. But they scored, they would have scored, so I think it worked out fine either way. They weren’t really driving; they were chunking. So whether they got it at the 50 or the 35, 15 yards of field position didn’t make much of a difference in my head.”

The Knights were the last area team in the postseason. Sycamore and Hiawatha each lost first-round playoff games. Genoa-Kingston finished 4-5, with three of their losses by a touchdown or less. DeKalb finished 2-7, but lost to only one team with a losing record and played six playoff teams. Four of the playoff teams they faced made it to at least the second round.

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