Giants find groove to make early CSL North statement

Giants with momentum are difficult to stop, as the Cougars of Vernon Hills found out Friday night.

Highland Park football scored at will in their Central Suburban North opener Sept. 26 in Vernon Hills, routing the hosts 35-7 to improve to 3-2.

The Giants’ victory follows two straight two-point losses that each featured slow starts from Highland Park.

”We’ve been struggling in the past couple of games to kind of get off to a good start,” senior receiver Lucas Gordon said. “We did that tonight and we got in a rhythm on offense. And we had a lot of confidence in our offense, so when we’re not turning the ball over, playing mistake-free football, I think we’re pretty hard to stop.”

An 80-yard touchdown run is always effective to that end.

After the Giants defense stopped a promising Cougars’ drive, the offense took over and handed the ball to junior Jayden Corchado, who broke loose for the long scoring jaunt.

Corchado is finding much more success in his second year as Highland Park’s tailback.

”He’s been having a pretty good year. It’s awesome,” Giants coach Anthony Kopp said of Corchado. “It’s always big to have like big-play ability. He did a good job of just seeing a crease there and hitting it and then also to keep going through contact, which with those kind of big runs it’s not always untouched. Normally you have to break a couple tackles, so that was good to see from him.”

The rout was on from there.

Gordon and junior quarterback Gustav Crane connected on a 60-yard scoring strike early in the second quarter and a 1-yard touchdown to make the score 21-7.

Vernon Hills’ only score on the night came on a second-quarter kickoff return.

But the Cougars threatened to close the gap before halftime, driving into the Giants’ red zone. An interception ended the threat.

Highland Park’s defense also had a fumble recovery (John Boman) on the night, and the unit’s play was a major highlight for Kopp.

”[The defense was] just playing as a team, playing fast, physical football, rallying to the ball,” Kopp said. “Everyone keeping it simple and just playing fast.”

Highland Park put the game out of reach in the third quarter.

Crane and Gordon connected on 51- and 12-yard passes to set up a 1-yard Boman scoring run.

And on their next possession, the Giants scored on a 12-yard strike from Crane to junior Max Stevens.

Crane threw for 188 yards and three TDs, and added 40 rushing yards, while Gordon caught five balls for 130 yards and two scores.

Led by Crane, the Giants racked up 190 rushing yards.

“We had to bounce back in a big way after two losses that we practically should have won,” Crane said. “It was a good morale boost to win this game big and get a win in conference. Let’s go.”

The Giants return to friendly Wolters Field on Saturday, Oct. 4, for a difficult 1 p.m. matchup with CSL North power Maine West (2-3), 41-33 winners against Niles North on Friday.

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