Waubonsie's Clay keeps Elgin on the run
You can't blame Waubonsie Valley quarterback Kenny Clay for showing off his arm whenever possible.
But if you're Warriors coach Paul Murphy, you can remind him every once in a while to remember his legs.
When Clay passed up a chance to scramble for a first down in the third quarter of Friday's homecoming game with Elgin, his coach yelled from the sidelines that he should have run instead of misfiring for Mark Szott deep in Maroons territory. So Clay made up for it by running for a 16-yard touchdown on fourth down to give the Warriors a comfortable 27-0 lead on their way to a 41-0 triumph that snapped a two-game losing streak.
"I always forget that my best thing is my feet," said Clay, who ran for 2 scores on Friday but also passed a pair of TDs against Elgin (2-4, 2-2).
Clay's night started on a sour night as Maroons lineman Hector Martinez forced a fumble by the Waubonsie Valley quarterback on the team's second play from scrimmage, but the Warriors defense made sure it did not cost them.
The Warriors (4-3, 3-2) held Elgin to just 4 first downs on the night, limiting the visitors to just 1 first down and 6 total yards in the first half while Clay and Co. built a 21-0 lead on short TD runs from Clay and Maurice Bowman and a 19-yard scoring strike from Clay to Scott Kuehn.
"Our defense was outstanding all week long in practice, and I knew they'd be great tonight," said Murphy, whose squad had 6 sacks in the contest. "It was nice that they were able to bail us out after turnovers at the start of each half."
After a subpar showing in last week's loss to St. Charles East, Murphy said his defense was fired up to bounce back this week.
"They were swarming all week," he said. "They kicked the living daylights out of our offense all week."
On Friday a linebacking core led by Owen Saldana and Rickey Simpson pressured Elgin quarterback Ryan Parks into a 4-for-15 passing effort for 13 yards, and the defense put Parks on his back 4 times and also brought down backup Jake Meyer twice in the fourth quarter while preserving the shutout.
"We've been struggling on offense the last couple weeks," Elgin coach Dave Bierman said. "We've got to be able to throw the ball and we weren't able to do that with any effectiveness. Even when we had seven men protecting they got pressure on us. We've got to shore some things up but you have to credit them some."
The Warriors put the game away in the second half as Clay hooked up with Andrew Strathmann for a 52-yard TD pass and Jason Lockowitz added a 37-yard scoring run.