The Silver Lake Eagles are in scoring position from St. Mary’s-Colgan’s 9-yard-line. No receivers are open, and quarterback Dailin Kruger sees a running lane down the right sideline.
Normally, Silver Lake’s senior quarterback wouldn’t even hesitate. But Kruger isn’t at 100 percent. You see, Kruger is playing with a brace on his knee after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament earlier in the season.
Still, Kruger takes off, breaks a tackle and scores on a 9-yard touchdown run to give the Eagles a 7-0 lead. Kruger proceeds to pass for 253 yards and two touchdowns during a 41-7 Class 3A quarterfinal win against Colgan.
“He had to make a play,” Silver Lake coach C.J. Hamilton said. “He was out there in space and had to evade one of their tacklers. That’s just the type of competitor he is. Once his competitive flow gets going, he doesn’t worry about that leg. With a torn ACL, most people wouldn’t even try it. But that’s not the way Dailin is.”
The gutsy play of Kruger has helped Silver Lake return to the 3A semifinals. The Eagles (11-1) will travel to face rival Rossville (12-0) Friday in a rematch of the War on 24. Rossville defeated Silver Lake 27-21 on Oct. 11. If the Eagles can win, they will advance to the 3A title game for the fourth consecutive year.
“It’s big,” Kruger said of the rematch against Rossville. “It’s a pride thing for most of us. It leaves a little sour taste for us. Everybody just wants to get back and prove we can play a lot better than we did.”
The first game against Rossville was Kruger’s first game back since the ACL injury. It has been a difficult transition. Kruger ran for 1,082 yards in 2012 and 314 yards through the first four games of this season. After the injury, Kruger has rushed for only 37 yards.
“It’s a shame that he gets into his senior year and put so much time into his development as a player, and now he can’t do all the things he’s used to doing,” Hamilton said. “It’s kind of frustrating for him, I know.”
Kruger had considered having surgery right after suffering the injury, but he decided that he wanted to finish his senior season.
“When I first hurt it, it kind of came as a shock,” he said. “Dad told me that he’s known people to play on their torn ACLs before. He said if you want to play baseball, then we’ll go ahead and get it fixed now. But if you decide you want to finish up football, we’ll get it braced and get you fixed up. I’ve been debating whether to play football or baseball in college. I decided I want to play football instead of baseball this year. I thought I could be more help if I was playing football rather than baseball.”
While Kruger has been limited as a runner, he’s had another great season as a passer. Kruger has passed for 1,888 yards and 24 touchdowns with only five interceptions. Since taking over as the starting quarterback midway through his sophomore season, Kruger has passed for 5,037 yards and 62 touchdowns with only 25 interceptions.
Of course, Dailin is just the latest in a long line of Krugers, who have been standout quarterbacks at Silver Lake.
His father, Dave, was the starting quarterback on Silver Lake’s 1984 state championship team. His older brother, Keenan, led the Eagles to a state title in 2010. His cousins, Kyle Kruger and Shannon Kruger own state records for most career passing yards (8,781) and most career passing TDs (92), respectively. He also is related to Oklahoma Sooners men’s basketball coach Lon Kruger, who was a three-sport star at Silver Lake.
Hamilton said all of the quarterbacks have been unique, but they also possess qualities that tie them together.
“Each of the Krugers have their own individual styles,” Hamilton said. “It’s not like they are all from the same mold. But they are all very highly competitive. Dailin exemplifies that in that he’s willing to sacrifice his health a little bit for the good of the team. He’s very much a team player. What he does is not for him. It’s for what he can do to help the group. They’ve all been like that. Even though they’ve had lofty numbers, No. 1 is that they are highly competitive and No. 2 is that it’s not about them.”
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