On Friday, Sept. 30, Antioch squared off against Wauconda in what has been the Northern Lake County Conference championship for four years running. The tensions were as high as possible, being it was also senior night for the Sequoits.
With the stage set, the Bulldogs came out early and administered a solid hit to the Sequoits. They fought down the field for over 60 yards for an early score. To make matters worse for the Sequoits, the offense struggled to get started. Outside of their first drive, Wauconda struggled to score only converting on a field goal to make the first quarter 9-0.
After being startled early, the Sequoits knew they had to make some changes on both sides of the ball. So they adjusted their game plan and got back to work in the second quarter.
“We [had a game plan], but they ran a different offense than we thought they were going to and it messed up the whole game plan,” senior Caleb Nobiling said.
Coming out in the second quarter, the game was at a standstill. Both teams were putting up strong defensive bouts until senior Quade Moll completed a huge 52-yard pass to sophomore Martin Cohen to get on the scoreboard for the Sequoits. Both defenses continued to fight until the end resulting in a halftime score of 9-7 favoring Wauconda. After feeling like they had been dominated in the first half, the Sequoits had to play significantly better to have a chance at winning.
“We needed urgency in the first half,” Moll said. “We didn’t have [that urgency] until the second half and then we started getting going.”
At the start of the second half, the Sequoits came out with the energy they needed and quickly drove down the field with a 40-yard pass. The Sequoits then scored on a 12-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Marshall Gehrke on the opening drive of the half. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs battled back with a score of their own making the game 16-14 at the end of the third quarter.
With strong defense throughout the fourth, it was still 16-14 with only a few minutes remaining. On their final drive, the Sequoits quickly drove down to the 25-yard line with a series of passes and set up for a field goal. Antioch missed, but a flag was thrown giving the Sequoits another chance at victory. However, the second field goal was missed as well and the Bulldogs escaped with a narrow victory.
Reflecting on the game senior Payton Holmes knows that the team is only looking ahead and will take what they learned towards the rest of the season and playoffs.
“We need to improve, all we have to do is forget about the past and move to the present,” Holmes said. “This week our team will have a much different performance than last week.”
The Sequoits are looking forward to finishing the season strong and setting up a playoff run in late October into November.
