Villa makes most of chance for Grant

Usually, the loss of a starting quarterback to injury is a bad thing.

But Grant has found the silver lining to senior quarterback Leo Minne's ankle injury, which knocked him out in the first quarter of last week's game against Wauconda and kept him on the sidelines for all of Saturday's game against Mundelein.

Junior backup Alex Villa has been a shining star from the second he assumed the reins. With the Bulldogs' 21-16 victory over Mundelein, he is now 2-0 and has pulled Grant to .500 (3-3).

"He's done a good job. He does some good things out there," Grant coach Kurt Rous said on Saturday. "He had a nice big run today and led us to victory."

Villa broke away for a 69-yard fourth quarter touchdown run against the Mustangs that wound up being the game-winner. He also scored on a 10-yard touchdown run earlier in the game.

Villa finished with 101 rushing yards against Mundelein.

Against Wauconda the week before, Villa directed Grant to 42 of its 48 points in a 48-23 victory.

Villa threw for a touchdown in that game, a 23-yarder to Jerry Gaylor.

With Minne due to return to the lineup next week, the Bulldogs may have a bit of quarterback controversy on their hands.

Or maybe not.

"He'll just come back and start right back up," Villa said matter-of-factly. "He's a senior and he's really good. But maybe I can come in every now and then and get a couple of plays in."