David Randecker ran for three touchdowns and Jr Fadahunsi had a pick-6 as Woodstock North traveled to Sandwich for a 55-6 win on Friday night in the Kishwaukee River Conference.

“We had our little meeting before the game and we had a lot of talks this week about not playing down to your opponent,” Randecker said. “The offense line did amazing. I feel like this is the first time our offense has been humming. We really played good today. We played all together. Had a couple little penalties, but overall we played great. And I feel like we cut those brake lines on their offense and made us have a stable scoring game and we came out on top thankfully.”

Woodstock North (4-4, 4-2) began its opening possession deep in Sandwich (2-6, 2-4) territory after Braelan Creighton batted away his first of two punts.

“That for sure set the tone,” Creighton said. “I saw my guy in the backfield, who I had my eye on, and he stayed back to block so I had a clear path and went right through. The snap was a little slow, and then the kicker going to kick it just took a long time, so I go up there and my goal was to block it, get a stop and don’t get any farther down on the field.”

The Thunder went up 7-0 on Randecker’s 4-yard run up the middle on a drive that began on Sandwich’s 31 thanks to Creighton.

“I’ve been close (to blocking a punt) maybe once or twice (this season),” Creighton said. “But coming into this game I really knew we needed to get a stop on them for sure. I feel like in the position we were in, we needed this win so I was going to go out there every play, playing my heart out to get a stop to everything and I saw my chance right there and was ready to block those punts.”

Parker Halihan scored on a 5-yard run with 1:20 remaining in the first quarter. 53 seconds later and Fadahunsi returned an interception from midfield to make it 20-0.

“A huge play there on defense,” Woodstock North coach Jeremiah Homuth said. “Great read by him to undercut that and, you know, we just preach just flying around and just getting the football and he just did exactly what we coach them up to do, and was a great play on his part. It’s truly a team effort. He gets the touchdown, but if you watch the film, you watch the entire defense get up the sideline and lead him up so everybody is getting blocks. A full team effort on that touchdown for him.”

Randecker’s 2-yard touchdown with 30 seconds remaining before half made it 28-0.

Halihan connected on a 32-yard touchdown to Braeden Burner with 8:04 left in the third quarter to make it 34-0.

The Indians ended the Thunder’s bid for a shutout on a 5-yard run from Nick Michalek as the senior dove valiantly into the corner of the end zone with 3:20 in the third.

“Credit to their defense, (they) did a pretty good job against Nick tonight and it’s certainly a tall task for a defense,” Sandwich coach Jason VanPelt said. “At the end of the day, we didn’t play well enough to win against a good high school football team. It kind of got away from us there. Not the way we wanted it to go. We definitely wanted to play better, knowing they’re a good team.”

Halihan added a 9-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter before a 12-yard run from George Kingos with 4:07 remaining was the final addition to a season-high scoring night for the Thunder.

“The long bus ride is one of those things we talk about all week,” Homuth said. “When we get there we can’t have that slow start. Sometimes you fall into that trap when you have these long bus trips, and we talked about that all week. Just gas, gas, gas, no brakes. As soon as you get there, play some football, play fast, start fast and get after that, and that’s what we did tonight.”