Camiliere hopes to keep Kaneland rolling

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:06PM

Kaneland senior quarterback Joe Camiliere does not believe the Knights are

playing their best football yet. Instead, the 11-0 Knights are

improving every week.

"That's something we talked about toward the end of the (regular) season; we

wanted to keep getting better," Camiliere said. "We want to keep climbing

upward and reach our peak. I don't know if we're there yet, but we're

heading up which is good."

Perhaps the only backward steps taken this year is when Camiliere drops

back. He has a bevy of weapons to throw the ball to, and his offensive line

has provided him the time necessary to go through his reads.

Camiliere has connected with 10 different receivers. Eight players have

caught touchdowns. Junior Quinn Buschbacher leads the team with nine

touchdown catches. Camiliere has completed 143 of 215 attempts this season

for 2,345 yards and 31 touchdowns.

In three years as a starter, the 5-foot-11, 195-pounder has completed 498

passes for 7,005 yards and 70 touchdowns. He has been intercepted just twice

this season. Camiliere credits his offensive line of Sam Komel, Alex Snyder,

Nick Sharp, Ben Kovalick and Ryan for much of his success.

"The whole offense starts with them," Camiliere said. "We can't pass the

ball and we can't run the ball if we don't get some blocks. They have been

doing a great job all year. I haven't been sacked much at all."

Buschbacher has caught 44 passes for 857 yards, Taylor Andrews has 23

catches for 323 yards and Blake Serpa has 22 receptions for 458 yards. Tyler

Callaghan (20 catches for 298 yards) has scored four touchdowns, and Sean

Carter (18 catches for 353 yards) has six touchdown grabs.

After last Saturday's 34-7 second round victory over Crystal Lake Central,

both Camiliere and Buschbacher pointed to repetition and the offseason for

the offense's effectiveness. The Knights seem to score at will. Kaneland put

up 42 first half points in the opening round of the playoffs and added four

touchdowns in the first half last week.

"We run our routes over and over again (at practice)," Buschbacher said.

"Just trying to get it down and get in timing with Joe. It's all chemistry

and how well the team works together."

"We rep as mush as we possibly can on all our routes and work on our

timing," Kaneland head coach Tom Fedderly said. "We say we want to get open

in under three seconds and get to the ball to our skill guys. There is no

doubt about it that all the hard work and reps has helped."

"We've got some guys that are on the bench right now that have played and

scored touchdowns for us," Fedderly continued. "I mean, Carter has six and

he hasn't been playing offensively the last couple of weeks. He's been

starting on defense. We've got a lot of skill guys."

The Knights will need all hands on deck this Saturday when they travel to

10-1 Vernon Hills for a Class 5A quarterfinal matchup. The Cougars have

allowed a paltry 49 points this season and have recorded eight shutouts.

However, they have given up points in bunches. Lake Forest notched 21 points

in the Cougars lone loss, and Tinley Park tallied 22 points last week. The

Cougars boast a pair of star receivers themselves. DaVaris Daniels, son of

former Chicago Bear and current Washington Redskin Phillip Daniels, has

verbally committed to Notre Dame, while Evan Spencer has committed to Ohio

State.

At 5-foot-9, 160 pounds Buschbacher is not the Knights biggest target, but

he is quick and difficult to cover. He also returns kicks and plays

cornerback. He will rarely visit the sidelines this Saturday.

"If you're going to try and press him, that is going to be tough thing,"

Fedderly said. "Not many people can do it. He's hard to jam at the line of

scrimmage, and if you do that he could get a big play."

"We're not saving anybody for anything," Fedderly continued. "Our key guys

are going to play all the time.

Camiliere and Buschbacher have helped the Knights climb this far. The peak

is near.

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.