ROCKFORD — Moments into the second half, Christian Life had run 20 more plays from scrimmage than Rockford Lutheran and had outgained the Crusaders 184 yards to 153.
Still, the Eagles trailed 27-6 at the time and would never recover in a 40-14 loss.
“In the first quarter, we only had three plays,” Lutheran coach Brian Kube said. “I’ve never had that happen in my career.”
The difference was Lutheran’s ability to make big plays and capitalize on Christian Life’s errors. Two of the biggest plays were kickoff returns for touchdowns by Jonata Pike.
The first came after quarterback Chris Neid and Jacob Bach teamed up to give the Eagles a 6-0 first-quarter lead on a 62-yard pop pass.
Pike used a crushing Stephen Baxter block on two Eagles to race 82 yards for the score.
“Baxter sprung me and the rest of the team got me to where I needed to go after that,” Pike said.
CL almost regained the lead in the second quarter on a 15-play, 66-yard drive, but fumbled the ball away at the goal line.
“That changed the game,” Eagles coach Chuck Leonard said.
Jake Koelher then hit Nate Green with a perfect 45-yard TD pass to make it 14-6. “Those two have good chemistry,” Kube said.
Koehler later threw a 16-yard scoring pass to Brad Schrom with seven seconds left in the half. Pike returned the second half kickoff 76 yards for a touchdown and Jack Rheingans ran in a 28-yard screen pass behind a big wall of blockers to give Lutheran a 33-6 lead. Rheingas’s touchdown came on 4th-and-17.
“They had been getting a pretty good pass rush, so we called it,” Koehler said.
Neid and Koehler closed out the scoring by getting 1-yard touchdown runs for their respective teams.
“We didn’t react to adversity or finish drives,” said Leonard of his youthful squad, which included two freshmen running backs.
-- Andy Colbert, rrstar.com
SCOTT MORGAN | RRSTAR.COM
Christian Life High School's Chris Nied (13) runs past Lutheran's Ryan Bartz (11) in the third quarter Friday, Aug. 29, 2008, during their game at Lutheran in Rockford. See a complete gallery from tonight's game here.
