Royals rush past Sabres

Williams racks up 303 yards

ELGIN -- After an excruciating loss last week to rival Elgin, it was going to take more than the quagmire that Memorial Field has become to slow down Larkin on Friday night against Streamwood.

Jalen Williams ran through the muck for 303 yards, teammate Sylvester Smith ran for 123 yards and the Royals dominated the Sabres from the opening kickoff for a 47-6 Upstate Eight Conference victory on Larkin's homecoming night.

» Click to enlarge image

Larkin's Jalen Williams holds on to the ball during Friday night's game against host Streamwood at Memorial Field in Elgin.
(Dave Shields/For The Courier-News)

"We wanted to bounce back hard after last week's loss," Larkin linebacker Alex Wahl said.

The bouncing started on Larkin's first offensive play from scrimmage when Williams stutter-stepped, broke a couple tackles and fed off great blocks from Wahl at tight end, Smith at fullback and left tackle Cody Schue to go 65 yards for a touchdown.

Williams went on to break a 35-yard TD run with two seconds left in the first quarter to give Larkin a 20-0 lead after quarterback Kyle Newquist had bootlegged one around right end for a 16-yard first-quarter TD run. Williams also had a 66-yard TD run 3:58 before halftime for a 33-6 lead.

"The main thing we wanted to do was, especially with the field like this, was run our base plays," Larkin coach Matt Gehrig said. "We basically do double team (blocking) concepts. That's a good thing to do in the mud."

It's also good to cut on a dime when everyone else is falling and sliding -- if you can do it. Williams did it all night until leaving with a hip bruise in the third quarter after 25 carries.

"My junior year, I was shaky and rattling, but this year my older brother (former Larkin back) Will Carter told me I should just make one cut up the field and you get up the field quicker," Williams said. "He's right."

It worked well, especially in the mud, as the Royals stayed on course for a possible playoff bid. Streamwood (1-6, 0-5), which plays home games on artificial turf, couldn't adjust to his cutting.

"We were just too worried about things like field conditions," Streamwood coach Cal Cummins said. "You've got to come out on a cold, wet night like this and play some mentally tough football and we were not ready to do that to start this game."

About the only thing the Sabres did right on the night was a 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Matt Woods after Larkin had gone up 20-0.

But the Royals (4-3, 1-3) came right back with a 16-yard screen pass from Newquist to Smith for a TD and 26-6 lead.

"Elgin beat us on some fourth quarter touchdowns," Williams said. "We felt it could happen again because Streamwood is a good team, better even than Elgin.

"We were feeling like we couldn't get complacent."

Larkin's defense took care of complacency by holding Streamwood to negative yardage until 10 minutes remained in the game. They forced four turnovers: fumble recoveries by Andy Laboy and Schue and interceptions by Lee Jackson and Matt Harris.

"Our defensive line stepped it up," Gehrig said. "We challenged them all week because we didn't feel they played their best game last week against Elgin.

"Our linebackers flowed hard to the football and did some hitting so we were happy with the way the guys played on defense."

In the fourth quarter, Larkin closed out the scoring with a 59-yard TD run by Smith and an 8-yard TD run by Gio Hernandez.

The Royals ran for 481 yards on 52 carries and outgained Steamwood 501 yards to 23.

"The sting of last week is something that was painful and something we just had to come out here tonight and deal with in order to move on and be in the proper frame of mind to compete for the rest of the season," Gehrig said.