It was sloppy, and it wasn’t pretty. But Stevenson will take its 14-7 victory at Antioch on Friday night in a North Suburban Lake Division contest.
The Patriots (5-2, 2-1) might have had an excuse: They were playing without starting running back Carl Johnson, who had a death in the family.
Even without the junior in the backfield, quarterback Preston Earl (10-for-18, 195 yards and 89 rushing yards in 12 carries) and running back Michael Breckheimer (20 carries, 117 yards) appeared to give the team enough firepower to put away the Sequoits (5-2, 1-2). But four fumbles lost disrupted the visitors’ rhythm.
“It wasn’t as pretty as we thought it would be,” Earl said. “But we really came together and made some big plays.”
One of them came from Russell Bonadonna, who finished off a 15-play, 80-yard drive with a 3-yard run at 10:43 of the second quarter.
The second came when Earl hooked up with Geoffrey Reins on an 80-yard scoring bomb to go up 14-0 at 10:09 of the third quarter.
