Highland Park gets back on track with rivalry win over Deerfield

There’s no perfect remedy for recovering from a tough loss. But a commanding victory over your biggest rival almost always does the trick. 

The Highland Park Giants bounced back in a big way by doing just that one week after their arduous matchup against the Glenbrook South Titans. Highland Park dominated its District 113 foe Deerfield to the tune of a 37-16 win over the Warriors on Friday, Oct. 2 at Adams Field. 

Highland Park bounced back in a big way one week after their arduous matchup against the Glenbrook South Titans. The Giants dominated its District 113 foe Deerfield to the tune of a 37-16 win over the Warriors on Friday, Oct. 2 at Adams Field. 

“I’m extremely proud,” Highland Park head coach Anthony Kopp said of the Giants’ Week 7 performance. “Our guys did a great job after that tough GBS game of really almost (immediately) buying into learning from that game but also moving on.”

After Highland Park’s defense forced a three-and-out on the game’s opening series, the Giants’ offense went on an 11-play, 71-yard drive that was capped off by a 1-yard touchdown run from senior quarterback Gustav Crane. 

Deerfield attempted to spark some offense on its next possession with a fake-punt attempt on fourth down but Highland Park’s defense sniffed out the play and forced a turnover on downs. 

It was the Giants’ defense who had another big play in them later in the first quarter when junior cornerback Mason Auslander intercepted a pass on third-and-long. 

The Giants took advantage of their strong starting field position and converted the turnover into a successful 41-yard field goal. 

A miscue from the Warriors’ special teams unit allowed HP to start its ensuing series inside Deerfield’s redzone. It took the Giants just two plays to make the Warriors pay, as senior wide receiver Peter Dimitriou found the endzone on a 12-yard touchdown run via an end-around pitch play. 

The good times kept rolling for Highland Park from there. On the fifth play of the Giants’ following series, Crane connected with senior wide receiver Owen Loftus for a 30-yard touchdown that pushed HP’s lead to 23-0 late in the second quarter. 

Junior running back John Boman made sure the Giants carried their momentum into the second half when he broke free for a 55-yard run on HP’s first play of the third quarter. Boman then finished the scoring drive with a 4-yard touchdown run. 

Crane rushed in a 2-yard touchdown, his second rushing score of the night, early in the fourth quarter for HP’s final score of the night. 

The Warriors had a pair of inconsequential late scores in the fourth quarter to cut into the Giants’ lead. The 16 points were only a minor blemish on what proved to be a stellar showing from Highland Park’s defense, which forced three turnovers (one interception and two fumbles) and multiple turnovers-on-downs. 

“I’m insanely proud,” Auslander said. “We followed the game plan, which was perfectly made for what they did and we executed every play tonight, play after play. 

“Everyone did their job on defense,” he added. “We need 11 out of 11 people doing their job on every play and tonight we executed on that.” 

Stopping the Warriors’ ground game was a priority throughout the week during practice, Kopp noted. 

“We were worried about Deerfield’s offense — they run the ball and run it well,” Kopp said. “They run that offense well, so we were definitely on it this week about making sure that we’re playing team defense, pursuing the ball and playing physical defense, and our players stepped up big time tonight.” 

Conversely, Highland Park’s ground game was firing early and often. The Giants rushed for just under 200 yards and scored four rushing touchdowns. Loftus was Crane’s favorite target in the air, as he hauled in a game-high nine catches.  

The Giants came into the game with a strong belief they’d be able to run the ball effectively. 

“We are bigger than them, we’re more physical than them and we’re faster than them and we knew that we could really take it to them on the ground going into this game,” said Crane, who along with Boman paced HP’s rushing attack. 

Following Friday’s conquest, the Giants are now winners of four of their last five games. What makes their run all the more sweet is a victory over Deerfield for the second time in as many years. 

“This series between us is back and forth all the time,” Kopp said, later adding that matchups against Deerfield are “always games that you know are going to be tight and exciting.”

“It’s fun to get two in a row against them, but it’s also rare to get two in a row against them.”