Kaneland had vivid memories of the scare DeKalb gave them last year when they forced the Knights to rally from a 17-point deficit in pulling out the 49-38 victory.
Those kind of heroics were not required this time as host Kaneland scored touchdowns on its first six possessions to crush the Barbs 66-23 Friday night in Maple Park.
“We were embarrassed with what happened last year and wanted to come out here ready to go,” Kaneland coach Tom Fedderly said. “I thought the guys came out and were aggressive and did what they needed to do.”
Kaneland quarterback Drew David was the star of the night, throwing four touchdown passes as he completed 7-of-14 passes for 210 yards
David’s 20-yard touchdown pass to Zack Martinelli opened the scoring for the Knights (6-0, 2-0 Northern Illinois Big 12). On the ensuing play Kaneland surrendered an 89-yard kickoff return to Dylan Hottsmith. That single lapse on special teams had no negative carry over to either the offense or the defense.
David added a 60-yard touchdown pass to Dylan Nauert. Nate Dyer scored on a 4-yard run and Jesse Balluff on a 14-yard scamper to extend the Knights lead to 28-7 after one quarter.
“We go in and want to have as much balance as we can for the most part,” Fedderly said. “We definitely have a lot of guys that can score.”
David added an 8-yard touchdown run and a 19-yard touchdown pass to Nauert in the second quarter, and Matt Rodriguez booted a 42-yard field goal, as the Knights fell just short of inducing the running clock with a 45-7 lead at halftime.
The Knights added three second half scores, including David’s third and fourth touchdown passes of the game, to make it a 66-15 contest with 8:44 left in the final quarter.
Balluff and Dyer combined for 273 rushing yards on 22 carries.
