Sandwich overwhelmed in second half, falls to Hope Academy in Chicago

Sandwich had every expectation of moving on to the Class 3A quarterfinals by Saturday’s final whistle.To even get to this point, the Indians had to pull off a road upset last week against No. 4 Durand-Pecatonica. But they were humbled during their trip to the Windy City, giving up 30 unanswered points to Chicago Hope Academy in a 30-8 defeat at Altgeld Field.Hope Academy (8-4) moves on to the next round, where it’ll face unbeaten Richmond-Burton next week.Sandwich (7-5) ends a season that culminated in its deepest playoff run since 2023.“We weren’t really prepared for this game to be our last,” running back Wyatt Gregory said. “We came in thinking that we were going to win, and we just didn’t play good enough to win.”It didn’t look that way at first.After a scoreless first quarter, Sandwich got on the board early in the second with a 28-yard touchdown pass from Cash White to Gregory on fourth-and-17. Gregory followed with a two-point run to make it 8-0.The @SandwichIndians strike first