Hampshire whips North Boone

Laramie scores 4 TDs

POPLAR GROVE -- The theme after a dominating 26-7 win over host North Boone on Friday night that gave Hampshire its first Big Northern Conference East Division win was pride.

Pride in the way the team played, pride in its defense and most of all, pride in the running game.

The Whip-Purs showed that a pounding running attack trumps a lethal passing attack, at least for one game. Hampshire bruised its way to 5.9 yards per carry on 53 rushing attempts, good enough for 317 yards.

Senior Ron Laramie led the way in that category by rushing for a career-high 195 yards on 32 carries. He also had four touchdowns on runs of 1, 7, 2, and 24 yards.

"We take pride in our running game," said Hampshire coach Dan Cavanaugh. "We like to be able to take the football and run it at people."

His first touchdown capped off a 15-play, 85-yard drive as the Whips took a 7-0 lead with 2:32 left in the first quarter.

"The lineman made holes, I found 'em and broke 'em," Laramie said. "I was seeing it well but the linemen held their blocks."

Caleb Kendrick added 77 yards on 10 carries.

Meanwhile, North Boone (4-3, 1-2) entered the contest boasting a pass-happy offense led by Alex Albrecht. The junior came into the game with 1,385 passing yards and 16 touchdowns, the best statistics of any Elgin or Rockford area player. However, the Whips (2-5, 1-2) completely shut down that attack and Albrecht got noticeably frustrated as the game went on.

On the Vikings first drive, Albrecht completed his first two passes and led his team from its own 35-yard line to Hampshire's 15 before stalling on a fourth-and-seven.

On the second drive, Albrecht had a 42-yard scamper up the middle, but the Vikings were forced to punt. After that, Albrecht found little room to run.

"Early on, their best offense was their quarterback and we adjusted to it a little bit," Cavanaugh said. "It was no big coaching adjustment. We just made the plays when we had to. He was not seeing the seams to run though like he was early in the game."

North Boone's lone touchdown came early in the second half on a short field. A pass from Hampshire quarterback Ryan Burke went through the hands of Ray Quesada and Albrecht grabbed it and ran it back to the Hampshire 15-yard line, setting up an Albrecht touchdown run to cut he deficit to 13-7.

"Hampshire played awesome. They're a pretty good football team, I don't care what their record is," said Vikings coach Aaron Sullivan. "They play a heck of a schedule. We slowed them down a bit at times, but they made plays and scored."

Albrecht completed 16 of 29 passes for 141 yards and one interception. He also represented the Vikings only resemblance of a rushing game as he took all 15 rushes 102 yards and a touchdown, accounting for all 243 yards of North Boone's total offense.

The Whips also controlled the clock, holding the ball for 31 of the 48 minutes of game time.

"Especially when you play a team like this, you have to keep their offense off the field," said Cavanaugh. "We executed our game plan really well."

A Laramie score made it 19-7 with 5:18 left in the third and the Whips sealed the deal after Laramie scored on a 24-yard run with 4:54 left in the game. Junior Mike Kuefner had an interception and a fumble recovery to lead the Hampshire secondary.

"We came here for pride, confidence and building for homecoming next week against Central," Laramie said.

HAMPSHIRE 26, NORTH BOONE 7

Hampshire       7    6    6    7   --   26

Harvard           0    0    7    0   --    7

Hampshire – Laramie 2 run (DeChant kick) 2:32

Hampshire – Laramie 1 run (kick failed) 5:29

North Boone – Albrecht 15 run (Gvist kick) 9:21

Hampshire – Laramie 7 run (conversion failed) 5:18

Hampshire – Laramie 24 run (DeChant kick) 4:54

Team statistics            Hamp        NB

First downs                     22             11

Comp. att- int              6-15-1      16-29-1

Passing yards                 95             141

Rush att- yard              53-317      15-102

Total yards                     412           243

Fumbles-lost                   1-1           1-1

Penalties-yards               9-90         7-80

Individual stats

Rushing

North Boone – Albrecht 15-102

Hampshire – Laramie 32-195, Kendrick 10-77, Kuefner 3-30, Burke – 6-0, Sabate 2-12

Passing

North Boone – Albrecht 16-29-1 141

Hampshire – Burke 6-5-1 95

Receiving

North Boone – Mischung 4-38, Garman 5-32, Johnson 5-62, Embry 2-9

Hampshire – Niccum 2-50, Quesada 2-17, Laramie 1-4, Kendrick 1-24