Oh, what a feeling

That's more like it.

That's the feeling Grant running back Dan Hourihan had on Saturday afternoon as he walked into the locker room.

There was cheering and hand-slapping and happy faces in the wake of Grant's methodical 14-6 homecoming victory over Wauconda.

Last week, when the Bulldogs lost to Antioch, there was none of that - for the first time in a very long time.

In fact, for Hourihan, it was for the first time ever.

The Bulldogs didn't lose a regular-season game at all last season, which was Hourihan's first on varsity. And the Antioch loss last week was Grant's first this season.

Clearly, Hourihan isn't used to losing.

"The way the locker room was last week, it was new to me," said Hourihan, who scored 1 of Grant's 2 touchdowns Saturday. He rushed for 101 yards on 14 carries. "Last year, guys would be excited and jumping around every week. It was really quiet in the locker room last week.

"But I think we rebounded pretty good."

By beating Wauconda, Grant moved to 6-1 (4-1 in the North Suburban Prairie Division) and officially clinched a playoff berth. The Bulldogs are also still in the race for the Prairie crown, tied with Vernon Hills for second place behind undefeated Antioch.

Wauconda dropped to 3-4, 2-2 and is up against the playoff wall. The Bulldogs must win their last two games to have a chance to qualify for the playoffs on points.

"You don't want to be 5-4 hoping you get in," said Wauconda coach Glen Kozlowski. "But we're going to do the best we can. It's going to be like this (intense) every week.

"This was a tough game. But you have to give Grant credit, they made the plays. They pound the ball every year at us and that's what they did today."

Grant didn't do any such thing against Antioch last week. The run-oriented Bulldogs managed just 125 rushing yards in the loss.

Against Wauconda, running the ball hard was clearly a point of emphasis. From their first play from scrimmage, the Bulldogs ran right at Wauconda - and often over and past Wauconda.

Grant scored on its first series, which went 12 plays, ate up more than five minutes of clock and was capped off by a 6-yard touchdown run by quarterback Justin Cokefair - who, like Hourihan, rushed for more than 100 yards.

Cokefair rolled up 128 yards on 24 carries to help Grant finish with 270 rushing yards.

"We definitely wanted to run the ball today," said Grant coach Kurt Rous. "We worked all week on fixing what was broken (in the Antioch game), and it seemed to work today."

Grant added to its early lead when Hourihan ran in his touchdown from a yard out with 32 seconds left in the first quarter.

Wauconda got on the board with just seconds left in the second quarter. Quarterback Garrett Dorsey hit Nick Jay with a 4-yard touchdown pass to cut the deficit to 14-6 heading into the break.

Grant's lead held as the defenses dominated the second half.

"This is a tough loss," said Dorsey, who completed 8 of 9 passes for 100 yards. "We started the game flat and it seemed like they had the ball forever. They really controlled the clock. When we do get the ball, we've got to score and do whatever it takes. We weren't able to do that."