Round Lake unable to get the 'W'
With a new coaching staff, it may take a few games for the Round Lake football team to get the bugs out both on and off the field.
Before the game, the host statistician had to scramble to get rosters for the visiting coaches and the media.
Things didn't get much better on the field as visiting Westosha Central defeated the Panthers 20-7 in a nonconference game Friday night.
The Falcons, using a wing offense, rushed for 292 yards while completing only 3 passes for 29 yards.
Matt Sadler led the Falcons attack by rushing for 152 yards, and Chris Corkins rushed for 112 yards while scoring the first touchdown of the game on a 14-yard punch up the middle with 7:43 in the first quarter.
After Westosha Central scored in the second and third quarters to build a 20-0 lead, Round Lake made it to the scoreboard on Matt Ortiz's 14-yard pass to David Windham with 33 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
The Panthers had several opportunities to score, but Westosha's Central's defense came up with several key plays.
Despite the loss, first-year coach John Coursey was happy with the way the Panthers hung in there.
"For the first game this year and what we are trying to establish in commitment, responsibility and accountability, the kids did a great job," Coursey said. "We made some mistakes, but we gave up too many plays on defense. We couldn't stop the run and we just made mental mistakes. But those are things we can eliminate."
Maine West 48, Wheeling 13: In the not so distant past when the Wheeling football program was recovering from a multi-year losing streak, the question every fall was, "will this be the year the Wildcats make the playoffs?"
That goal was accomplished last season when Wheeling qualified for the state tournament for the first time in 11 years, and now this season, the question seems to be "just how good can the Wildcats be?"
Judging from game No. 1, pretty darn good.
Wheeling piled up the yardage early and often against an outmanned Maine West team in a 48-13 home victory.
Wheeling senior quarterback Matt Holmes ran for 3 scores and passed for 2 more while the Wildcat defense more than held their own against a pass-oriented Warriors offense that put the ball in the air 36 times.
Wheeling defensive back Michael Barton had 2 of the 4 interceptions.
"Man, they're fast, aren't they?" said Maine West coach Chris Hare of the Wildcats.
"They hit hard and they execute well. We had our moments, but there were times we shot ourselves in the foot."