It's Gray's day for Thornton

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

Jamal Gray hadn't returned a kickoff for Thornton before Saturday, but don't be surprised if he gets more chances to do so this season.

Gray muffed the opening kickoff before picking it up and racing 96 yards to give the No. 10 Wildcats a lead they never lost in a 48-6 rout of host Thornwood.

"My team gave me enough blocks to get a hole," said Gray, who also caught six passes for 89 yards and two touchdowns.

"That's a great way to start off a game," Thornton coach Bill Mosel said. "We mishandled it [and] I don't know if they relaxed or what."

The Wildcats (5-0, 1-0 SICA East) were able to breathe easier after building a 21-0 lead before the game was nine minutes old.

After forcing a Thornwood punt, Thornton drove 83 yards on eight plays to score on Damien Bell's 15-yard run.

Following another three-and-out by Thornwood (1-4, 0-1), Thornton needed just six plays to score again on Darren Jones' 30-yard pass to Gray.

Jones finished 12-of-14 passing for 165 yards and three touchdowns, and he could have been perfect because the two incompletions were balls dropped by receivers.

"I've been working on my precision," Jones said. "My receivers were there and they made the catches."

Bell also had a big day, gaining 74 yards and scoring two touchdowns on just five carries.

"He's young -- he's only a sophomore -- he's starting to get a little more time," Mosel said. "He kind of reminds me a little bit of Cory [Sykes, a former star back for Thornton]. ...

"Cory, when he was a a sophomore, actually had a big game on this field."

Thornton's top rusher was Dante Tolbert, who finished with 79 yards and one touchdown on 16 carries.

Illinois-bound fullback Greg Fuller didn't have a carry in the first half, finishing with 16 yards on four runs.

"He's come up big the past two, three weeks, like [against] Crete in the mud and stuff," Mosel said of Fuller. "Today, it just wasn't something that we needed."

Up 21-6 at the half, Thornton pulled away with two touchdowns each in the last two quarters. Jones threw touchdown passes of three yards to Gray and 22 yards to Ovie Godfrey in the third period to make it 34-6. 

Tolbert had a three-yard scoring run and Bell dashed 48 yards for a score in the fourth quarter.

The one downside for Thornton: 21 penalties for 175 yards.

"We had more penalties today than in the first four weeks [combined]," Mosel said. "Some of the calls were ... interpretation calls. There's not much you can do about that."

Thornwood scored on Nathan McNeal's 14-yard pass to Jeremy Windham. Ghaffar Dairo led the Thunderbirds with 93 yards on 29 carries.