Volume 2 – Issue No. 7

It’s not very often that a team puts a zero on the scoreboard in the first quarter and ends up with a fast clock en route to a 40-point win, but that’s exactly what the ‘Cats did at Westmont.

On our first possession of the second quarter, Jayson Conlin put our first 6 on the board with a 17-yd scamper through a huge hole on the left side of our line. It had been set up on the previous play when Jeremy Bailey ran for 11 behind a steamrolling block by Ty Farmer.

That score began a 21-point spurt that took just 8 offensive plays and 2 minutes, 50 seconds. We kicked off after our TD and on the first play by Westmont, Brennan Bryan sacked the resilient Westmont for a 5-yard loss. On the very next snap, Bryan stepped in front of a screen pass and was tackled at the Westmont ten. Jeremy Bailey, with the help of a nice block by Trent Howard, took it in on the next play.

On the next kickoff Jayson Conlin came up with a first down sack for a 6-yard loss. On second and third downs, Westmont threw incompletions, including a third-down hurry by Conlin. On the opening play after their punt, Ty Anderson found Bailey open down the middle, and he lumbered to the 2-yard line from where Conlin took it in on the next snap.

Our kickers, Trae Berndt kicking off nine times, and Nick Anderson punting twice, kept Westmont on a long field all evening. Two were downed inside the 20, and five went into the end zone to come back to the 20. The Sentinels’ average starting field position was their own 22-yard line.

The Wildcat defense was their usual stingy selves, but there some new names that we heard multiple times. Ian Issert ran down the receiver from behind on a screen pass to hold the play to short yardage in the second period, and he picked up a 3-yard tackle-for-loss at the start of the fourth. Will Jansen’s name was heard more than once for his work on defense.

If you had asked the Westmont QB his name after the game, he might have answered “Jay Cutler”. His evening was much like the one the Bears’ QB endured Sunday evening a week ago. He was only sacked three times, but many throws were hurried and he found himself face-down on the ground after many passes left his hands.

Our O-Line created the fourth 100-yd individual rushing game of the season, when Jayson Conlin collected 100 yards on just 7 carries. It was his second 100-yard game, to go with a pair that Jeremy Bailey has logged. When Hillary Clinton made famous the phrase “it takes a village”, I think she was answering the question: “How many people does it take to bring down Jayson Conlin or Jeremy Bailey?” It’s amazing how those two keep the pile moving for more yardage with as many as five people hanging on them.

Our team defense was as good as we’ve grown accustomed to watching. Through three periods Friday, they allowed 28 rushing yards on 13 carries including a 40-yard run, and 116 yards on 14 pass plays, including a 62-yard pass. That’s 144 yards on 27 plays. If you take out those two long plays, they netted 42 yards on 25 plays. Neither of those long gainers went for scores, because Zach Skoryi ran them down at the 18- and 31-yard lines.

Finally, we get to meet the Coalers on the gridiron. They had become our fiercest rivalry, but then when they came up with the “new and improved I-8″ with two divisions and a dozen teams, we ended up not playing them at all in 2008 and 2009. Let’s hope that never happens again.

For Coal City, the playoffs start this Friday on Becker Field. They fell to Manteno last week by a 35-14 score to make their record 3-4, so they have to win both of their final two games and then hope that they have enough playoff points to make the 256-team playoff field. If we can beat them, their 2010 season will end meaninglessly against Dwight in Week 9.

The last two meetings we had with them were both shutout losses at Coal City by scores of 14-0 and 6-0, so Wilmington hasn’t scored on them since 2005! Let’s hope that our guys break that string early Friday evening. When the Coalers walk out onto Becker Field Friday evening, it will be the first time since our seniors were 8th-graders. That year, the ‘Cats won by a 21-14 score.

Forget the fact that we’re 7-0 and Coal City is 3-4, because those numbers won’t mean a thing. Earlier this century, we had some of our biggest crowds ever when Coal City came to town. There was a year or two when there were 5000+ fans on hand. This one is for local bragging rights. We first played Coal City in 1978, and we hold a 13-10 advantage.

One of the oddest halftime scores ever was between us and the Coalers in 2004, when Coal City led 4-0 at the half. We ended up winning that one 20-4. The 1997 meeting was memorable as well. We finally beat them in the third overtime when C. J. Dziuban stole the ball from the Coaler QB to end the game.

The varsity Player of the Week on Offense was sophomore Sean Liaromatis, who came in when Ty Anderson went down, mid-way through the second quarter vs. Seneca and guided the team through the end of the third quarter. In last week’s game against Dwight, he started at QB and played until halfway through the final period. On Defense, the varsity Player of the Week was Garrett Saulters, who opened our scoring in the second quarter, when he stepped in from his cornerback position and picked off a Dwight pass and then tightroped the sideline to the end zone.

There was no freshman Player of the Week, because Dwight didn’t have enough players to field a team. The Trojans only have 7 sophomores, so all of their freshmen are playing on the fresh-soph team and enough are dinged up that they couldn’t play us.

I-8 schools not having a freshman team is beginning to become a problem. Westmont doesn’t have one either, but they at least let our staff know soon enough that they could schedule a game with the Lockport “C” team for this past Monday. Brian Goff, the current Lockport Athletic Director (and former AD here) helped us out by getting us an opponent this week.

Lisle didn’t have enough freshmen to field a team, either. So that our kids wouldn’t have to be a week without a game, we consented to Lisle using their sophomores who don’t start for their JV team. It seems that without a strong freshman program, a high school program isn’t going to improve much. At a minimum, they are placing themselves at a huge disadvantage.

I’m always watching for noteworthy scores for high school football games, and JCA’s victory over Chicago St. Patrick 72-27 this week I think was the first 100-point game of the year in Illinois. Then I happened to notice that El Paso-Gridley had defeated Minonk Fieldcrest Friday by the outrageous score of 75 to 57. If you assume that they made all of their PAT’s , that means that one team or the other scored a TD every 2 minutes 32 seconds!

I have to apologize for belittling the Westmont visitors’ seating. They have large-enough, new aluminum bleachers for their out-of-town guests. There was no sign of large numbers of Canada geese being nearby, either. On a sadder note, they have a concession stand without popcorn!

See you in the Bleachers!

Bill Francis

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