Antioch beats Round Lake for seventh win

Updated: October 6, 2011 10:56PM

Antioch improved to 7-0 on the season and 4-0 in the North Suburban Conference Prairie Division by beating host Round Lake 34-6 on Thursday in a North Suburban Conference Prairie Division football game.

The Sequoits are now 4-0 in the division and will face Grant next week in what amounts to the division’s championship game. Grant is 4-1 in the league and 5-2 overall. Regardless of the outcome next week, Antioch will be in the playoffs starting the last weekend in October.

Thursday’s contest featured an amazing second-quarter sequence that started after Antioch scored a pair of TDs.

After a missed field goal, Round Lake drove 75 yards in 19 plays and chewed up nearly 11 minutes of clock time.

But, with a second-and-goal at the 1, Panther QB Anthony Burton had the ball stripped by Antioch’s Zach Freundt, who took it out of the QB’s arms and raced the other way to the house for a 20-0 halftime lead.

In the third quarter, Antioch QB Josh Anttila scored on a 2-yard run and junior Cody Qwinn tallied on a 37-yard run.

Antioch’s first two scores were on a 33-yard pass from Anttila to Anthony Formella and a 1-yard run by star fullback Dan Arden.

Round Lake got on the board late on an 11-yard run by Burton.

“It was frustrating to watch Round Lake march down the field, but it was a huge momentum swing for us,” said Antioch coach Brian Glashagel of Freundt’s game-changing play. “We do take-away drills every day in practice and Zach has the knack of stripping the ball and making big plays.”

Freundt is a linebacker and he was looking to make a big play.

“What I was thinking was, ‘Don’t let them score.’ When he (Burton) went back, I just stripped the ball from him and just thought to myself, ‘Just don’t stop.’ “

For the game, Antioch’s vaunted ground game was as good as advertised with 370 yards rushing. Arden, who already is a 1,000-yard back for the year, carried just a dozen times for 50 yards. In his stead, Leroy Chapman had 114 yards on the ground and Cody Qwinn carried 13 times for 98 yards.

Qwinn usually plays tight end, but was shifted into the backfield and was a bull running up the middle.

Antioch hasn’t beaten Grant in Fox Lake since 1979, though the stat is misleading because the teams went more than a decade without playing. “We know that they’re going to be ready,” said Glashagel. “They’ve got to get six wins to make the playoffs and I’m sure they’d love to beat us.”

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