Hinsdale Central 2-0 After Sloppy Road Win Over Leyden

Senior running back Jack Adams ran for 188 yards and the defense kept its second straight opponent out of the end zone as the Red Devils overcame three turnovers and 13 penalties to beat Leyden, 17-3, Friday night in Northlake and improve to 2-0 on the season.

Adams carried the ball 25 times and scored on a 43-yard touchdown run that iced the game late in the fourth quarter. He had two fumbles in the first half, one of which was recovered by the Eagles.

"We came out slow," Adams said, referring to a first half that saw Hinsdale Central take a 3-0 lead into the locker room despite committing eight penalties. "In the second half, we came together. We started making our blocks and I started finding my holes."

, the Hinsdale Central defense was solid again Friday. Senior linebacker Andrew Pyle and the gang kept Leyden senior running back Mickey Gulo from reaching positive yardage on the ground—he totaled -1 yards on 15 carries.

Eagles senior quarterback Michael Smith completed only 8 of 27 passes for 97 yards. He threw one interception.

Hinsdale Central's defense has allowed three points in 96 minutes of play so far in 2012.

"That's been, at this point, the rock of our team," head coach Rich Tarka said. 

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The Red Devils' 13 penalties Friday cost Tarka's team 159 yards. They included two pass interference penalties, two facemask penalties, and an unsportsmanlike conduct call against an assistant coach.

"We had a lot of penalties," Tarka said, calling the win "ugly" but crediting his guys for overcoming an "out-of-sync" first half. 

Hinsdale Central senior quarterback Brian Owens completed 7 of 14 passes for 63 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. His 9-yard scoring strike to senior wideout John Claussen with 2:37 remaining in the third quarter put the Red Devils up 10-0 and would prove to be the winning score.

But it was Adams who carried the load most of the night. The senior who missed much of the 2011 season due to injury piled up 76 yards on his first nine carries in the first quarter and, after a quiet second quarter, ran for 48 yards on eight carries in the third, and 64 yards on seven carries in the fourth.

"We had nothing near that last year," Tarka said of the Red Devils strong running game.

Adams' last carry was a 43-yard touchdown run down the sideline with 2:32 remaining in the fourth. Before that, Adams said, he had been pounding the ball all game without getting a ton of open-field opportunities.

"I finally got it at the end and it felt good," he said.

Leyden fell to 1-1 with the loss.

Next up for the Red Devils is their West Suburban Silver opener at Proviso West next week.