Wheaton Academy dances to win
Swing dance. Hip-hop. Lyrical dance.
Those are just a few of Kai Libby's training methods that make the Wheaton Academy senior so hard to bring down.
For those who like their football players to be all contact, all the time, the three-year starter also perfects his balance through lacrosse.
Regardless of discipline, on Saturday the Guerin Gators found Libby tough to tackle. He ran for 186 yards with touchdowns of 33, 73 and 13 yards in Wheaton Academy's 55-14 Suburban Christian Gold victory in River Grove.
"Where's the hole, how do I push it in?" Libby said of his thoughts while carrying the ball, which he also did on 3 catches for 42 yards.
"How do I honor my Father and honor my team? It's not about the points," he said, "it's about giving the best you've got, every play."
Due to efforts like Libby's and a 4-3 defense that intercepted Guerin quarterback Tom Kelly four times and recovered 2 Gators fumbles, Wheaton Academy (3-0, 1-0) initiated a running clock with 7 minutes, 40 seconds left in the fourth quarter on backup quarterback Nate Martinez's 2-yard pass to Trey Spurgeon.
Like it or not, in Wheaton Academy's spread offense big passing numbers lead to big points. Starting quarterback Tommy Decker was 18-of-28 passing for 235 yards with touchdowns to Tyler Bosse, James Johnson and Luke Thorson, who also returned an interception 18 yards for a touchdown.
"The first conference game of the season, we wanted to get a 'W.' That was the main thing for us," said Warriors coach Ben Wilson.
"Obviously, we gave up two big plays for touchdowns we shouldn't have given up. We know that to play against the top-level competition we can't be doing that. But I was pleased. Our kids played hard, they executed our scheme and I was pleased by our effort."
Guerin (2-0, 0-1) actually has improved since 2009. The Gators trailed 21-0 after a quarter but went Wildcat on Nick D'Alessandro's 39-yard touchdown run. Down 35-7 at halftime, Justin Williams took a handoff, tossed it back to Kelly who then threw to John Dabe for an 88-yard touchdown.
Add Gators mistakes, however, to physical two-way linemen like Josh Bergquist, Nate Jones and Jake Heidorn, a guy like Sam Cote who can split the uprights on a kickoff and added 108 yards receiving, and a full offensive boat, and there was no dancing around the Warriors.
"Our defense is playing unreal right now, so it makes it easy for an offense to put up points," Decker said. "We've got a lot of weapons on offense, so it's real easy to just pick and choose who you want to throw it to."