Sycamore piles up 40 points in 1st half in win over Oak Forest

SYCAMORE — Sycamore couldn’t be stopped as it dominated visiting Oak Forest, 40-6, on Friday night.

Even when things went wrong for the Spartans (2-0), they still managed to get the ball into the end zone.  On their first scoring drive of the game, quarterback Eli Meier was sacked for a 22-yard loss. Two plays later on third-and-20 from the 30-yard line, Meier dropped a dime to Burke Gautcher in the back right corner of the end zone for the touchdown.

“I don’t think anyone was worried,” Meier said. “It’s almost to be expected. We can make anything out of nothing.”

Meier and Gautcher would hook up on another long touchdown pass to start the second quarter as Meier hit Gautcher streaking across the middle of the field at the 20-yard line. Gautcher barely broke his stride as he ran away from his defender across the field for the touchdown.

“I thought we were able to do all the things we wanted to do,” Sycamore coach Joe Ryan said. “The first series was kind of a mess, but we got bailed out because we have some great athletes. After that we kind of got on a roll.”

Meier connected on a third deep touchdown pass with two minutes left in the first half, this time to Addison Peck. Meier reared back on first down and lofted the ball to Peck, who had a step on his defender. The ball landed in Peck’s hands in the back left corner of the end zone to put the Spartans up 40-0 going into the half.

“It’s a great feeling,” Meier said. “They know where they have to be and I know where I have to put the ball, so that’s what we work on in practice. It’s good to see it translate into games.”

The Spartan defense, meanwhile, locked down the Bengals’ running game.  The Spartans forced the Bengals into three-and-outs on five of their seven first half possessions. The Bengals (1-1) had one drive where running back Joe Casteneda made two big runs for 25 yards, but that drive ended in a punt at midfield.

“We shut them down,” Spartan defensive lineman Lincoln Cooley said. “It was fun. We practiced it all week, so it was good.”

Cooley had two tackles for a loss and was a big part of the offensive line that controlled the line of scrimmage all game.

The Bengals added a touchdown late against the Spartan backups when Matt Sheehy ran into the end zone from 5-yards out with six minutes left in the game.

The Spartans, on the other hand, scored on every possession in the first half to set up the running clock by halftime.

The other Spartan scores came on two touchdown runs by Joey Puleo and one by Zack Crawford.  All three touchdowns rushes came within the 5-yard line in goal-to-go situations.

The only thing that went wrong for the Spartans was the loss of Kayden Galto on a punt return.  Galto went to make a cut up field and his foot stuck in the turf, causing an ankle injury.

“It’s hard to enjoy a win when you see one of your players go down with an injury,” Ryan said.