Minne, Kent: Side-by-side sidelined

It was an eerie sight. A sight no one wants to see. A sight that, fortunately, isn't seen too often.

After last Friday's North Suburban Conference Prairie Division game between Grant and Wauconda, both starting quarterbacks met at midfield to shake hands and exchange, not pleasantries, but sob stories.

Both Leo Minne and Brian Kent were on crutches.

Both left the game, long before its completion, after suffering serious injuries.

"I've never seen anything like it, and there's a good possibility you won't see something like that, where both quarterbacks get hurt, ever again," Wauconda coach Dave Mills said. "It was a sad sight to see both of those guys talking to each other after the game on crutches."

Minne hurt his ankle in the first quarter when someone rolled on it during a tackle. Kent hurt his knee in the third quarter when someone fell on him from behind.

"We've had our quarterback knocked out before," Grant coach Kurt Rous said. "But I've never seen both starting quarterbacks knocked out at the same time. That made things interesting."

Both teams then turned to their backup quarterbacks, neither of whom have much experience.

Alex Villa got the best of Eric Dragon in the "Battle of the Backups" as Grant managed to get a 48-23 victory. Villa directed the Bulldogs to 42 of their 48 points.

"Alex isn't quite as quick as Leo, but he's shifty and deceptive," Rous said. "He also did a nice job in a fourth-down situation when he threw a touchdown. We were really pleased with the way he handled himself and the situation last week."

Villa will likely get the start again on Saturday against Mundelein as Minne probably will need another week of rest and rehab.

"We're hoping to have him back next week," Rous said of Minne. "He's getting better but he's not quite ready."

The news for Wauconda is better.

Although trainers wondered immediately after the injury if Kent had ruptured ligaments, it turns out he suffered only a knee sprain. Depending on how he feels, he could be ready as soon as Saturday to help Wauconda take on undefeated Vernon Hills.

"I had a big smile on my face when we got the result of his MRI test on Monday," Mills said. "There were no tears in there or anything. If you saw the way (Kent) went down, you would have worried that something might have gotten torn. But everything's good and it's just a sprain.

"Things really depend on him right now and how he feels and how quickly a doctor can clear him. But I'll tell you this, though. This kid is doing everything he can to get back. He's been doing a lot of therapy with our trainer, Bob Gillen, who is doing a great job with him. He's been running already. I have a lot of faith in Brian that he'll be back very soon."

Mills said that Kent's doctors and trainers believe that the only reason Kent is in a position to make such a lightning-quick recovery is that he did everything he needed to do before the season even started.

"Brian worked so hard in the off-season getting ready for this season," Mills said. "He was in the weight room all the time. He really worked on himself physically and if he hadn't done that, his knee would be gone. He probably would have blown it out. Instead, he's going to be fine and he's way ahead of schedule."

But Mills won't let himself get carried away just yet. For now, he still plans on starting Dragon against Vernon Hills.

"Eric played (against Grant) about the way you would expect any young man who is playing quarterback in his first varsity game," Mills said. "He has a lot of growing up to do, but he's already done a lot of that in practice this week. He's coming along very well."

Changing of the guards-and tackles: Consistency. Who needs it?

Apparently not the Grant offensive line.

The Bulldogs' starting quarterback, Leo Minne, isn't the only offensive starter to have been bitten by the injury bug. Grant's entire offensive line has been riddled with injuries.

"We haven't started the same offensive line all season," Grant coach Kurt Rous said. "We've been a patchwork group."

Right now, the Bulldogs are starting Jake Maraz, Zac Applehans, Jared Lalanda, Luis Echevrria and Quinton Quarles but only Maraz has started all five games this season.

And yet, despite all the changes in the lineup, the line is somehow performing like a unit that has been together for years.

Last week against Wauconda, the Bulldogs rushed behind the offensive line for 367 yards and 5 touchdowns in a 48-23 victory.

"We've really been working on our offensive line," Rous said. "One of the things that has helped us is that we've rotated a lot of guys in during practice, so we have a lot of guys who know what to do if they do have to go in.

"I wish we could play with the same five all the time, but we haven't had that luxury and we've had to do what we can to make things work."

Basic training: After suffering a thorough 34-0 loss to Vernon Hills last week, Antioch first got angry.

Then, the Sequoits got back to basics.

"When you lose a game in that way, it forces you to think about what you're doing," Antioch coach Brian Glashagel said. "We looked at how we practiced the week going into that game and we didn't have horrible practices, but we didn't have great practices. We didn't practice with a sense of urgency.

"We decided that this week, we would go back, to basics, go back to practicing the fundamentals to kind of change things up and get the guys to bring that lunch box mentality that you have to have during preseason practices when you're working on all the fundamentals and basic drills."

Glashagel said that his team did everything from basic tackling stations to old-school drills this week in an effort to regain their edge.

"I feel a lot better with where we are this week compared to where we were last week," Glashagel said. "Our practices were much better, much more intense because we simplified things and just got down to the basics of football."

When it rains - : Two weeks ago, Antioch coach Brian Glashagel was about to enjoy his Saturday.

His Sequoits had just beaten Grant in a Week 4 game the night before and life was good.

But then Glashagel found out that morning that one of his top running backs, Josh Guadarrama, would be out for the next four games after breaking a team conduct rule just hours after the Grant win.

Things went from bad to worse when Glashagel's cell phone rang moments before he was about to enter a movie theatre that night.

He was told that three of his players Teddy Montemayor, John Bieschke and Brad Gundlach had just been in a car accident on a dark frontage road near the high school. Their car had left the road and flipped over into a ditch and Montemayor had been temporarily trapped underneath.

"Talk about a weekend of drama," Glashagel said. "It was unbelievable. I rushed to the hospital. Luckily, everyone was OK."

Two passers-by help Bieschke and Gundlach free Montemayor. All three boys were taken to the hospital, where Bieschke, a linebacker, was treated for a knee injury and Gundlach, an offensive lineman, was treated for a shoulder injury. Montemayor, a defensive lineman, complained of shortness of breath and soreness.

Bieschke and Gundlach are both planning to have surgery and are now out for the season, but Montemayor, who gets major minutes off the bench, could suit up again soon.

Winning with wildcards: Before the season, Grayslake Central seniors Jahard Nelson and Bryant Jennings were unknown known commodities.

Say what?

They were what Rams coach Nick Goshe likes to call "wild cards."

He knew that Nelson and Jennings were both talented athletes, but he didn't know what exactly to expect from them this season. Both suffered injuries last season and saw little if any action on the field.

"Kids who are out like that with injuries get rusty, you don't know if they'll be (tentative) when they come back," Goshe said. "They're wild cards."

Now, Goshe, whose team if off to a 3-2 start, is simply wild about Nelson and Jennings. The two seniors have more than exceeded his wildest dreams about how they could help the team this season.

Nelson, who was out with a broken wrist in 2009, is now among the team's leading rushers. He got out to a quick start on Opening Night with 109 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns and took a 30-yard run to the end zone last week.

Meanwhile, Jennings, who played at half-speed last year because of a painful hip flexor injury, is a defensive leader for the Rams. He had a 93-yard fumble return for a touchdown in last week's 30-14 victory over Woodstock.

"Those guys are both major contributors now and it's so nice to see after what they went through last year," Goshe said. "They had to come in and win their spots back and they've done that and a lot more. They've both really come through for us."