Billy Miller has a trio of touchdowns but DeKalb falls to Andrew

DeKALB – DeKalb treated its Homecoming crowd to some exciting plays on the first Friday in October.

Andrew did as well.

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The visiting Thunderbolts from Tinley Park rained on the festivities of the evening with huge offensive plays of their own in a 54-21 victory.

“Whether it’s a penalty or missed assignment or blown coverage we’re not consistent enough right now.” Barbs coach Derek Schneeman said. “It’s just the bottom line. We’ve just got to continue to get better. We’ve got three weeks to continue to improve.”

DeKalb (0-6) had its first huge play of the night with 4:03 left in the first quarter. Cole Latimer found Billy Miller across the middle for a 19-yard touchdown pulling the Barbs to within 14-7.

“I knew I was going to have to take a shot,” Latimer said. “I just took a three-step and I trusted Billy was going to be there. I knew he was. He’s a great receiver. I know he’s always going to be there for me. I stayed in there, delivered it and I guess he caught it somehow. I guess it was in his hands. It worked out.”

Miller and Latimer connected again with 9:55 left in the second quarter, slicing the deficit to 28-14 on the 23-yard score.

“I noticed the DB pressing one-on-one, and again, Billy is a great receiver so we’re going to take that matchup every time we can take it,” Latimer said. “(I threw) him a fade ball up. I was able to put it just where he was able to get it, so he was able to grab another one.”

Andrew (4-2) then began pulling away.

Camden Maniatis had made his presence known to the Barbs when he scored on a long run on the second play of the game. He struck again with a 54-yard touchdown run up the middle to make it 34-14.

DeKalb found the end zone again to make it 54-21 with 3:09 remaining in the third quarter.

Michael Hodge connected with Miller down the middle of the field and the speedy wide receiver did the rest for the 56-yard score.

“I think we just trusted our athletes and our athleticism as a whole,” Hodge said. “He’s (Miller) so fast, so athletic. He can get it done any day, and we trusted our other receivers to make the blocks because not just one person can make the play happen.”

Miller loved the play call.

“Coach played it right,” he said. “Run run run. We talked about it. Run run run and then hit it. It was my teammates, thanks to my wide receivers. They were blocking. That’s the big reason I scored; They were blocking, nothing really that big. They were just blocking for me.”

Consistent play continues to plague the Barbs from making more plays like that one.

“Our effort is really good, but it comes in waves,” Hodge said. “It’ll come up and down. Like at the end right there it was to the max, but then earlier in the game you could see our effort wasn’t there. Because when we give our full effort I know we’re better than a lot of these teams we play.”

It was apparent that the Thunderbolts wanted the game, They need to keep winning to stay alive for the playoffs.

“They wanted it more,” Miller said. “And when I say they wanted it more (I mean on) on certain plays. We didn’t want it the whole game. (Their heads were) up even when we scored. They went back and scored.”

At the end of the day, it’s a football game and the Barbs continue to compete.

“We’re just trying to come out here and play football like we’ve been doing our whole lives,” Latimer said. “We’re kids trying to throw the ball around a bit and have some fun no matter win or lose even though we want to win every single time.”