Highland Park’s Sledd leads way

Updated: September 17, 2011 12:41AM

Highland Park reserve running back Andrew Sledd scored six touchdowns on Friday night, as the Giants won their first game of the season, 47-14 over Niles West in Skokie.

The junior reached the end zone on runs of 3, 4 and 20 yards, caught a 16-yard pass from quarterback Jason Goldstein and in less than a minutes elapsed time in the second half, Sledd ran back two kickoffs, 88 and 87 yards for the Giants (1-3).

“The most I’ve ever had (at any level) is three TD’s,” Sledd, a sprint specialist on the Giants track team, said. “I saw the holes in the kick return and got some great blocks. Once I saw the kicker, I knew I’d get past him.”

The reason that Sledd had the opportunity to run two kickoffs back within a minute, is that Niles West (2-2) speedster, Jeremiah Johnson, returned a kickoff in-between Sledd’s two for 92 yards into the end zone.

“When I saw him return one, I just thought come back and do it again,” Sledd said.

“In my 31 years of coaching, I’ve never seen back-to-back-to-back kickoff returns,” Highland Park coach Hal Chiodo said.

Not only did the highly entertaining game feature three kick returns for touchdowns to start the second half, which took 41 seconds, but Johnson also returned a punt 61 yards for a score. The game though, was really about Sledd.

“Andrew had a pretty special night,” Chiodo said.

Sledd, who was replacing injured starting running back Nate Echt, carried the ball 15 times for 76 yards. The Giants also had a 23-yard touchdown run by fullback Brendan Philador. Niles West turned the ball over four times. Wolves linebacker Andrew Matias recorded a game-high 11 tackles.

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