The Patriots never looked back once, as they stomped on the Taft Eagles in their home opener, increasing their record to 2-0. Thanks to the strong offensive efforts early in the game, the Patriots went on to win 42-7.
The Patriots offense never died, scoring six touchdowns total in the night. Wide-receiver Thomas Simmons ’25 had two touchdowns, and quarterback Aidan Crawley ’26 finished with 180 yards. Running back Christopher Thorndyke ’25 finished with 93 rushing yards and a touchdown, and Griffin Suren ’25 on the defensive line helped secure the home victory for the Patriots.
The offensive show started early in the first quarter, with a fumble recovery by Alex Drabczak ’25 who ran the football into the endzone from the three yard line to break the scoreless tie. Soon after, the Patriots gained possession leading to a nine yard touchdown pass from Crawley to Zachary Hersh ’25, making the score 14-0 in just the first quarter.
Kicking off the second quarter, Crawley connected with Simmons for the first time of the night with a 12 yard passing touchdown to increase the Patriot lead to 21.
“It was awesome, dealing with some early adversity, but the receivers were getting open, the linemen were blocking well, going up against a strong Taft team, it made us feel really good early,” Crawley said.
Beginning the second half, Crawley shifted his focus to his running backs, handing the ball off to Thorndyke and Frank Costabile ’26 who each scored touchdowns of their own, expanding the lead to 35-0. The rushing game was successful all game because of the Patriots offensive line, creating open routes and putting additional pressure on the Eagles defense.
“We have been working tirelessly everyday in practice to perfect our movement,” offensive-linemen Andrew Timmons ’25 said. “Creating open lanes and not letting defenders get to our receivers is our team’s hidden weapon.”
With two and a half minutes left of the third quarter, Crawley found Simmons again in the endzone for a 13 yard passing touchdown, Simmon’s second of the game. Neither the Patriots nor the Eagles scored for the remainder of the third quarter.
The fourth quarter started strongly for the Patriots defensive second team with Lucas Benthusen ’25 picking up three tackles on three straight drives. After a 1 yard rushing touchdown by the Eagles, the contest was complete at 42-7.
After winning the first two games of the season against out of conference opponents, the Patriots look to continue with the regular season facing the North Suburban Conference (NSC) teams. It will be extra difficult now after Simmons and offensive lineman Albert Murillo ’25 had left the game due to injury at the end of the third quarter, but the Patriots’ red-hot momentum could sustain them for weeks to come.
“I think [being 2-0] puts more pressure on our team,” Crawley said. Coming off two big wins and not allowing a lot of points on defense, it’ll be difficult to repeat that. But we’ll battle through it and do good against our conference opponents.”
Next Friday the Patriots will face the Libertyville Wildcats at Stevenson Stadium at 7pm.The athletes have ambitious goals as they continue on within the season.
“This year, the first goal is to win the conference, then honestly make a run in the playoffs, hopefully make it to state,” Crawley said.