Volume 2 – Issue No. 10

The Winnebago game might have been our best effort of the 2010 campaign. Steve Liaromatis had his third 140+ yard game and his first four-touchdown half since Jeremy Bailey’s injury. In fact, in those three games he’s had 479 yards on 56 runs, for a 8.55 average. What a blessing to have someone standing by with that kind of talent, when your #1 running back heads to sick bay! Blake Olson and Jayson Conlin have been contributing 89 rushing yards per game between them over that same three-game span.

The Wildcat defense continued to shine, especially in the second quarter when we had three take-aways. Ian Issert picked off a pass (that I think had been batted by Jayson Conlin), Zach Skoryi snared an Indian pass on a deep route, and Will Jansen covered a Winnebago fumble. On the first play after the fast clock began mid-way through the third, Ryan Osburn recovered another ball that Winnebago put on the ground.

The Winnebago offense had ten possessions before the fast clock started when many of our starters headed to the sidelines. Those ten possessions only included 26 plays. For the game, we ran 54 plays to just 29 for the Indians. Through three-quarters, our D gave up 43 yards on 16 carries, plus two pass completions for 60 yards.

On special teams, our kick-receiving was spotless, with Skoryi, Mike Wolfe, and Blake Olson cleanly receiving everything that came off an Indian foot. We did have some troubles with kickoff coverage and twice, our kickoff kicker, Trae Berndt, had to make score-saving tackles.

We never got a chance to see Winnebago’s fullback/linebacker in action. He reportedly was suffering from a shoulder injury. I’m glad they didn’t risk making it worse, because he wasn’t going to make a 45-point difference in the outcome. Wrestling is his forte. He’s wrestled in the 215-pound class since he was a freshman, when he claimed 4th at state. As a sophomore, he was third, and a year ago, he was the undefeated state champion. His three-year record: 118 wins, 7 losses.

I can’t take credit for making the observation (I think it was Terry Anderson’s), but the Wildcats actually played five different kids at quarterback against Winnebago. Ty Anderson started and played until the “fast clock” began with 6:07 left in the third quarter. Sean Liaromatis came in and ran things for a quarter and then freshmen Nick Narine and Andy Liaromatis shared the final 6:28 of the game.

Contrary to what both local daily papers reported, Nick Narine did not throw a TD pass to Brennan Bryan with 3:27 left in the second period. We faked a punt on 4th and 10 from our own 39 yard-line. We had three receivers spread wide and Winnebago only had one player out there to cover all three of them, so someone must have called an audible and the snap went to one of the upbacks instead of to the punter.

In this case, the upback was Trent Howard, who stood up and threw to Bryan who motored all the way to the endzone. That made Trent the 5th Wildcat QB of the game. He took the snap from the long-snapper, Steve Liaromatis, and threw a TD pass, so I guess that made him the QB for that play.

On offense, Howard is usually a pass receiver, but until the Winnebago game, his only touchdown was a 1-yd run against Seneca. Friday, he caught a pass for a 26-yard score, and he threw a touchdown pass for a 61-yard score. He hasn’t yet run back an interception, but maybe he’s saving that for this week.

Last week, I showed my narrow vision in “bracketology” when I wished that Aurora Christian would win at Oregon, so that if we survived to Round Three, we would at least get Stillman Valley at home. I never anticipated that our friends at Elmhurst Immaculate Conception would mess that up by winning on the road at Byron. That forces Stillman Valley to travel to Elmhurst this weekend. If Stillman and us survive to Round Three, the game would be played in Stillman Valley.

If EIC should happen to beat Stillman, and we take care of business with Aurora Christian, we’d get to host Elmhurst IC in Round Three in a game that would be re-match of the 2002 state semi-finals.

What do we know about Aurora Christian? They are situated on the northwest edge of Aurora, not far from Mooseheart. They are a non-denominational private co-ed school that plays in the really tough Suburban Christian Blue Conference. In their conference this year, they lost to Montini 42-0 and Wheaton St. Francis 39-7. Their other two losses were to Woodstock Marian and Aurora Marmion. The smallest football enrollment among those four was Montini with a football enrollment of 1,148.
Their school mascot is the Eagles, and while we play on “Becker Field”, the football playing field at Aurora Christian is called “God’s Field” – seriously. Maybe that means that it will be neutral. I wonder if it’s intimidating for the referees to work a game on “God’s Field”.

A year ago, Aurora Christian had the Magee twins from Plainfield on their team, and both of them earned all-conference honors. They transferred back to Plainfield South last February, reportedly due to financial reasons. The tuition for high school at Aurora Christian is $6,835 per year, and with twins, that’s a bit pricey.

In May, a new quarterback transferred to Aurora Christian from JCA. He is Anthony Maddie, and he is the operator of their spread offense. He threw 25 times against Oregon and connected on 14 of them for an average of 19+ yards per reception. Included in his five scoring strikes were four post routes and one swing pass. One covered 70 yards; the others were from 10 to 39 yards. [ In our game against Coal City, the Coalers threw 25 times and connected on 12, for 30 fewer yards than AC logged against Oregon].

Our pass rush will likely be crucial. If Mr. Maddie can stand back there and “survey the landscape” downfield without pressure, he might have a field day. If he’s got Wildcat rushers in his face and breathing down his neck, his accuracy should suffer.
In newspaper of the AC game with Oregon, and the Oregon players related that the Eagles kept 10 players “in-the-box”, and the 11th at the Safety position for the entire game. [Ten players "in-the-box", means that ten of the defensive team is lined up on the line of scrimmage or within a couple of yards of it. It’s almost daring the offense to throw the ball.]

Aurora Christian was penalized for a late hit on the Oregon QB, which knocked him out of the game. It might have been a good investment of 15 yards. The Eagles had one receiver with the same last name as the head coach, (Beebe) who played with a heavily taped broken foot. He caught 7 passes, two of which went for scores. At game’s end, the yardage totals were 432 for Aurora Christian and 150 for Oregon.

Expect them to be the best team we’ve face this season. Keep in mind that in the 2009 playoffs, they were bounced in the first round by Winnebago, by a 28-14 score. I don’t say that to make anyone overconfident. I just don’t think that we need to be awed by them.

The varsity Defensive Player of the Week for the game at Sandwich was senior Spencer Butler (#75) who has grown comfortable in the nose guard spot. He is accused of being the one responsible for stripping the ball that Garrett Saulters turned into six points. The Offensive Player of the Week was junior guard Kyle Bardel (#71), who has been solid at that left guard spot in the O-line and will be back in 2011, to carve holes for our running backs.

The fresh-soph Co-Players of the Week were sophomore linemen #73 Joe Kerulis and #72 Nick Vancura. Right now, they average 5’11″ and 186 pounds, so they’ll be competing for spots in the varsity lines the next two years. The freshman Player of the Week was #6, QB/DB Nick Narine.

In commenting on the overall health of the football program, Coach Reents pointed to a combined record this season for all three levels, of 26 wins and a single loss. In the past three seasons, the freshman teams have lost 2, the fresh-soph squads are undefeated, and the varsity has a pair of losses.

Sandwich clobbered Chicago Harper in the Round One of 4A 49-14, for the right to host 9-1 Geneseo in Round Two. Herscher got smoked by Chillicothe (IVC), 42-0. When Herscher bounced Lisle from the playoffs late in the last regular season game, that dropped Stillman Valley from 4A down to 3A to make our lives interesting. As a result, I can’t cry about their first-round exit. Manteno, making its first-ever playoff appearance, dropped a 41-13 game to Big Northern East Conference power Richmond-Burton.

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