Grayslake will come out on top

Good news if you're a football fan from Grayslake. One of Grayslake's football teams will win tonight.

It's a guarantee.

Of course, the two struggling teams will be facing each other. They meet up at Grayslake North (7:45 p.m.) in a crosstown Fox Valley Conference grudge match.

The prize is the first win of the season.

Both Grayslake Central and Grayslake North enter the game winless at 0-6.

"It's been tough, but the kids have hung in there," said Grayslake North coach Steve Wood. "They always come out and practice hard, their attitudes have been great and they've kept their spirits up. As coaches, we can't ask for much more."

Other than a few wins.

The Knights, in particular, are craving those.

Since fielding its first football team in school history last year, Grayslake North has yet to win a varsity football game.

The Knights went 0-9 last year.

"Until we get that first one, there's going to be that (monkey on the back)," Wood said. "The first one is probably going to be the hardest one we ever get.

"I mean, if we had some tradition and were a program that had had your typical success in the past, I think we would have won some of the games we've played in this year. But the kids have a lot of doubt still and it will probably be there until we can start getting those wins."

The wins have been few and far between for Grayslake Central, too.

The Rams won two games last year and were 0-9 in 2005.

Despite a lack of a winning tradition in town, Wood is expecting nothing less than a jam-packed stadium come game time.

"Well, first of all, the weather is supposed to be gorgeous," Wood said. "But, we would expect a big crowd even if it wasn't. We've actually been getting really great crowds all season long. I mean, really good crowds for an 0-6 team that is 0-15 all-time.

"There are so many supportive people in this community and they want to see us do well. They've been coming out week after week. Hopefully, we'll be able to get a win for our fans this weekend."

Still running: Despite the loss of their two best fullbacks, Grayslake North's rushing game has still been fairly potent.

Running back Robbie Nesbitt has rushed for more than 100 yards in two games this season, including last week's game against Prairie Ridge in which he rolled up 120 yards on 18 carries.

He tallied more than 180 yards against Lakes earlier in the season.

"Last year, I don't think we even sniffed 100 rushing yards in a game -- and that's for the entire offense," Grayslake North coach Steve Wood said. "It's been great to see such an improvement in that area. Our offensive line is so much better than last year. And Robbie's been everything we expected him to be.

"He's doing a much better job of being patient when he runs. He's letting the line block for him and waiting for holes to open up."

Nesbitt isn't getting holes created for him by the two fullbacks who were supposed to be sharing time with him in the backfield this season.

Jason Denikas and Mike Morales have been out with injuries since early in the season.

Denikas blew out his knee against Lakes and is done for the season and Morales broke his ankle in the second week.

"Unfortunately, we had two bad injuries happen in the same position," Wood said. "But the kids have hung in there and we've kind of done fullback by committee."

Flag football: Yellow flags have Round Lake coach Doug Moss seeing red.

He has just about had it with his team's bad habit of getting silly penalties -- and lots of them. The Panthers are coming off of back-to-back games of 100-plus yards of penalties.

Last week against Antioch, Round Lake was flagged 15 times for 112 yards of penalties.

"We can be very competitive, but we just shoot ourselves in the foot," Moss said. "We're doing silly things, late hits after the whistle, stuff like that.

"We've talked to our guys about it, and some of the guys who have been doing it the most aren't going to be playing any more. Other guys are on a very short leashes."

Moss says his hard stance isn't easy for anyone to swallow, but that it's absolutely necessary.

"It hurts our program to have guys sitting out because of this because we have only 34 varsity players, so we don't have a lot of guys to work with," Moss said. "But you've got to try to get through to them somehow. This is serious and we want to stop it."

Moss says he'd love to second-guess the referees, but really can't. He's seen some of his players in action.

"One of our guys came off the field after he got us a penalty and was like, 'Well, that guy pushed me.' And I was like, 'So what?' Moss said. "A lot of what we're going through has to do with a lack of discipline and a lack of understanding about the game.

"I know sometimes our guys feel like every time the ball bounces, it's not going our way. And they get frustrated by that and show their frustration in ways they shouldn't. But that's part of the game. Good teams make their own breaks."

In and out: The good news for Round Lake is that running back Ray Bryant should be back to almost 100 percent for Saturday's game at Grant.

He suffered a deep contusion on his foot two weeks ago against Vernon Hills and wasn't quite himself last week against Antioch.

Bryant, who has rushed for about 900 yards so far this year, tallied just 18 yards against Antioch.

"His timing was off," Round Lake coach Doug Moss said. "He just wasn't clicking."

This is where the bad news comes in for Round Lake.

Just as Bryant returns, the rest of the offense might not be in a position to click on all cylinders.

The Panthers found out that during a play against Antioch last week, starting quarterback C.J. Swanson separated the shoulder on his right arm, his throwing arm.

He will be out four to six weeks, which essentially ends his season.

Now, backup quarterback Matt Ortiz will take over.

"Matt did a great job at quarterback during his freshman and sophomore years and he was actually in quite a competition with C.J. for the starting spot this year," Moss said. "But C.J. won it. He is a little bigger and faster than Matt and he ran the option a little better than Matt.

"Matt is a good scrambler and can take off and run well. But overall, C.J. ran the offense a bit more consistently and provided a lot of leadership. You just hate to see something like this happen to a kid to end his season."

Catching up: Reading about Warren's upset of previously unbeaten Lake Forest made Mundelein coach Dave Whitson lament the fact that he hadn't been at the game to watch it in person.

After all, his team is facing the surging Blue Devils tonight.

But Whitson wouldn't have traded what he did on Saturday instead. He drove over to Ohio to watch Western Kentucky and former Mundelein star Jake Gaebler take on Bowling Green.

Western Kentucky lost 41-21 but Gaebler looked solid.

He caught 2 passes for 11 yards and returned 2 punts for 29 yards.

"Jake did a nice job," Whitson said. "It was nice to see him."

Small guys: Fans at tonight's Warren-Mundelein game will notice a few similarities between the team's backfields.

If they can see the backfields, that is.

You see, the running backs at both schools aren't the biggest guys in the world.

Mundelein's Jamal Ross checks in at all of 5 feet, 4 inches, while Warren's Darrien Pitts is 5-foot-5, Greg Kennedy is 5-foot-6 and Aaron Dahlke is 5-foot-4.

"I'm so glad Jamal isn't going to be the shortest kid on the field," Mundelein coach Dave Whitson said with a laugh. "Warren's guys are small, too. But the thing about all of them is that they're very, very fast."

Last week against Libertyville, Ross sped his way to 132 yards, including a huge 80-yard gain in which he torched the defense.

Meanwhile, Warren got a solid effort out of its backfield last week against Lake Forest.

Dahlke gained 127 yards and Kennedy added 92 yards. Pitts was out with an injury but is expected back for this game.

"We've got a really solid group of running backs," Warren coach Dave Mohapp said. "They're all fast and they all bring a lot to the table."