Greyhounds spoil Kits’ party
Offensive line leads the way as Hubbard outgains Evanston 476-88
Hubbard’s William Taylor was switched from quarterback to running back this season. That is his true position, he insists. To be certain he stays there, he calls his successor, 14-year-old freshman Quincy Skanes, every day ‘‘to make sure his head is in the game.’’
‘‘I’d rather be a running back,’’ Taylor said. ‘‘We’re a better team with [Skanes] at quarterback. It puts more athletes on the field at one time. We don’t have any stars like in other years. But we play as a family. We all believe we can take state.’’
(Michael Fryer/For the Sun-Times)
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Hubbard vs. Evanston
Well, Hubbard took Evanston by storm Saturday. Taylor, a 5-9, 175-pound senior, rushed 19 times for 126 yards and two touchdowns, and 5-8, 150-pound junior Ronnie Oliver carried 13 times for 144 yards as Hubbard (2-0) scored on its first two possessions of the second half to beat Evanston 34-20.
Taylor, Oliver, Skanes, Jerome Laseter (seven rushes, 67 yards, two touchdowns), linebacker Darius Moffett, defensive back Brandon Noland (three interceptions) and a big offensive line keyed by tackles Darius Crosby (6-2, 330 pounds) and Kevin McIntyre (6-4, 250) spoiled Evanston’s party honoring legendary Wildkit coach Murney Lazier.
‘‘Hubbard took it to us physically,’’ said Evanston coach Mike Burzawa, whose team fell to 0-2. ‘‘We have more work to do. We’re working on fundamentals and we must improve on them. This is a learning experience.
‘‘We’ve got to get better on offense. And our defense was gassed in the first half.’’
Hubbard amassed 306 yards to Evanston’s 39 in the first half, but led only 21-20. The Greyhounds, who led 14-0, committed seven penalties and gave up two touchdowns as Evanston’s Antonio Sanders picked up a fumbled snap on a punt and ran 11 yards to score, then blocked a punt and recovered the ball in the end zone.
‘‘We made so many mistakes in the first half, penalties and special teams,’’ Hubbard coach Elton Harris said. ‘‘We did a better job in the second half. Our offensive line had a good game. Taylor is like Kelvin Hayden. He’s a leader. He plays both ways and knows how to settle the team down.’’
Hubbard, which finished with 476 yards to Evanston’s 88, broke a tie at 14 as Taylor ran for 23 yards and Skanes (4-for-7, 89 yards) threw a 26-yard pass to Kevin Collins to set up Moffett’s five-yard scoring run. Evanston closed to 21-20 at halftime on George Sorenson’s 11-yard touchdown pass to Josh Perryman.
But the Greyhounds pulled away on Laseter’s 14-yard run at the outset of the third quarter and Taylor’s three-yard run from the quarterback position on the second play of the fourth period.
‘‘This is my youngest team since I began coaching in 1995,’’ said Harris, whose son Elton Jr. played linebacker for Evanston. ‘‘But we have a lot of potential. We have so many running backs that the receivers get mad because they don’t get the ball enough. We have no stars, no Kelvin Hayden or Robert Hughes or Charles Frazier or Ben Henderson. We’re just a team.’’