Butler '10 feet tall' in Wheaton North victory

Wheaton North's Reece Butler isn't your prototypical quarterback, but he has all the intangibles that help his team win.

He isn't the tallest guy on the field at 5-feet-10, but he knows how to lead a team, he is very accurate throwing the football and knows the offense both inside and out. Lincoln-Way East found that out first hand as Butler helped lead the Falcons to a 33-20 win Friday night in Wheaton.

Butler completed 25 of 32 passes to seven receivers for 314 yards and 4 touchdowns against the Griffins (1-1).

"He isn't the biggest guy on the field, but he may very well be the best player," Lincoln-Way East coach Rob Zvonar said. "He is 10 feet tall and dynamite with the ball in his hands. Tonight he happened to make all the plays to help his team win."

In the first half alone Butler was 13 of 18 for 215 yards and 3 touchdown passes as the Falcons (2-0) led 20-14 at the break.

"My offensive line makes it really easy for me because they do a really good job protecting me," Butler said. "It is also a real fun group to work with when it comes to my receivers as well. Once we get rolling it becomes fun for everyone to be involved with this offense. But in the end it all comes back to the offensive line and tonight they did a great job."

The defense for Wheaton North stepped up as well. Every time it looked like the Griffins were starting to get momentum the defense made a play and gave the ball back to the offense.

With the Griffins driving in the third quarter, cornerback John Bloss made a play and intercepted a pass in the end zone, giving the ball back to Wheaton North. For the game the Falcons forced Lincoln-Way East into 5 turnovers for the game.

"I lost track of all the turnovers we forced tonight," Wheaton North coach Joe Wardynski said. "We had some huge plays on defense tonight. When the defense makes big plays like that the offense really wants to reward them with points. It is nice to get to 2-0 tonight."

"Their kids really made plays tonight every time it looked like we were going to score," Zvonar said. "They made more plays than we did tonight. I am not sure if we shot ourselves in the foot or they made plays. Bottom line is they got the win and we didn't."