Lake Park gets an early, unwanted win

Every week Lake Park's football team holds a Wednesday night practice to game plan for its next opponent.

Coach Chris Roll canceled it this week.

The Lancers were the unhappiest bunch of winners on Wednesday after being declared forfeit victors of Saturday's game against Raby. Raby notified Lake Park Wednesday morning it had to cancel at the varsity and sophomore levels because of "disciplinary actions."

After contacting the IHSA, Lake Park athletic director Pete Schauer was told the Lancers would be 1-0 winners over Raby. With such little notice, Schauer said there's no time to try and schedule another varsity contest.

The Lancers' sophomore team, meanwhile, will play Saturday morning at Naperville Central in a nonconference game.

"It's a shame," Schauer said. "We were really looking forward to it, but we have to respect their decision and go from there."

Lake Park (2-0) was scheduled to play Raby as part of Saturday's six-game crossover between the DuPage Valley Conference and the Chicago Public League. The Lancers' game was the first of a triple-header at Lane Tech, with the other three games slated for Gately Stadium.

Roll gave his team Wednesday night off as he met with his staff to discuss how to handle the surprise bye week. The Lancers immediately will begin preparing for their Sept. 19 game against Wheaton North.

"Everything has a negative and a positive," Roll said. "Now the negative is behind us and the positive is ahead of us. Our focus is on the end of the process."

Roll stressed the week off will give his players time to heal up from a rugged opening two games. That being said, he also knows they need to remain focused on the task at hand.

Thursday and Friday, Roll said, will be particularly strenuous practices.

"We need to keep them focused on football," Roll said. "We're losing a game, so we'll need to get after it the next couple of days."

On the road again:

In 1986 Naperville Central's football team headed into Chicago for a first-round playoff game at Lane Tech.

Sometimes it feels like the Redhawks have been on the road ever since.

They return to Lane Tech on Saturday in their third straight road game to start the season. Next week they're at Wheaton Warrenville South before finally enjoying their first home game in Week 5.

It's not ideal, but it's also something Naperville Central's been through before.

"It's not an issue with our kids," said Redhawks coach Mike Stine. "We're used to playing on the road. We've played on Saturdays. We have our set routine."

Plus, it's nowhere near as tough as 2009 when Naperville Central spent the bulk of the fall having FieldTurf installed at Memorial Stadium. The Redhawks played their first eight games on the road and debuted the new field in the regular-season finale.

Naperville Central won seven of those eight road games in 2009, a rate of success the 1-1 Redhawks wouldn't mind this season.

"Our kids are pretty resilient and focused," Stine said. "I think any high school football player would prefer playing at home, but they understand the situation and they're dealing with it well."

Home away from home:

As soon as Benet coach Pat New looked at the forecast, he knew the weekend weather might be an issue.

And the Redwings would be dealing with it 300 miles away from home in O'Fallon.

"It looked pretty bad so I asked the players and the parents if they'd be OK staying down there in case the game was moved to Saturday," New said. "Only a few of the players were planning on coming back on the bus. Most of them were planning on staying down there with their families and scheduling college visits for Saturday."

Sure enough, thunderstorms rolled through southern Illinois Friday night and forced the postponement of the Redwings' game with O'Fallon. Benet led 7-0 after a quarter on Brad Sznajder's touchdown when the game was stopped.

Sensing the inevitable, New took advantage of the delay by calling the hotel the players' families were staying at and booked rooms for the coaching staff. The players who planned on heading back to Lisle on the bus Friday night bunked with teammates already staying in the hotel.

After a relaxing night at the hotel pool, the players went out and improved to 2-0 on Saturday with a 24-10 win.

All things considered, it turned into a pretty nice weekend.

"It worked out well for us," New said. "It's the scrappiest team I've coached. We won't blow anyone out, but we'll always compete."

Searching for mojo:

It hasn't happened since 2009 - Neuqua Valley starting the season 0-2.

The Wildcats have yet to click offensively, though Naperville North and Naperville Central have had something to do with that. Neuqua coach Bill Ellinghaus, coming off his first shutout as coach and the team's first since falling 20-0 in Week 9 of the 2008 season, said mistakes "here and there" have stopped drives.

From penalties to missed assignments to physical mistakes, he said, "We've had a little bit of everything."

The good news is Neuqua has allowed only 3 touchdowns these first two games. Ellinghaus pointed out the play of cornerbacks Nathan Bailey and Famus Hasty, linebackers Derrek Warkenthien and Liam Bunge and defensive ends Pat Cadogan and Tyler Bromer and tackle Chris Rice.

The coach said the offensive inconsistency isn't a matter of effort but of execution. He also noted offensive linemen Hank Michalski, Jon Bylak, Devin Eubanks, Jarred Cruger and the Cwiok twins, Tommy and Anthony, improved over Week 1.

"I don't think we're far off," Ellinghaus said. "We've had some positive plays, for sure, we've had some positive drives. They just haven't always resulted in the scores that we need."

Football 101:

Blocking, tackling, controlling field position, ball control, run defense - the basics are Metea Valley's keys Friday against Bartlett.

Last season Metea Valley (1-1) beat Bartlett 20-6, the Mustangs' first win over a tough Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division foe.

"That was a big win for us last year and for our program," said Metea coach Ben Kleinhans. "Like I've told the guys all week, Bartlett wasn't happy with us beating them. They're coming in this year and I'm sure looking for payback and putting us back in our place a little bit."

Having allowed 305 yards rushing in a 45-28 win over Plainfield North and 303 unofficially in a 33-30 loss to Glenbrook South, Kleinhans figures Bartlett will feature its traditional power running offense, though the Mustangs can't fall asleep on three-year starting quarterback Jordan Flint.

Metea linebackers Ryan Cotter, Logan Cotler and Ben Belski must be on top of their game against Bartlett running back Nolan Bernat, who ran for 203 yards in the Hawks' 3-0 win over Notre Dame.

The difference in both Bartlett's win and Metea Valley's loss last week was a made field goal. Here Metea is in good stead with Michael Sfikas, who booted a 34-yard field goal against Plainfield North and last week averaged 40 yards a punt.

Though Metea lost 3 fumbles to Glenbrook South the Mustangs rallied from a 16-point fourth-quarter deficit on 2 Bryson Oliver touchdown runs. It's a possible confidence builder for this week.

"I was extremely happy with that," Kleinhans said.