Another season cut short for Wheaton North QB Graham

For the second straight year Taylor Graham's football season is ending painfully early.

The Wheaton North senior quarterback, who verbally committed to Ohio State before the season, reaggravated the torn PCL in his knee last week against Wheaton Warrenville South and will not play the rest of the season.

The disappointing news comes on the heels of Graham's junior year when he was lost for the season in Week 5 with a broken ankle.

"I feel terrible for him," said Falcons coach Joe Wardynski. "Hopefully, he can rehab and get healthy for his future."

Graham first hurt the knee after banging it on the ground awkwardly in Week 2 against Lake Zurich. He played the following week against West Chicago before the injury was diagnosed, then sat out until the WW South game.

Junior quarterback Reece Butler, who replaced Graham earlier in the season, takes over behind center. Justin Swider, who played for Graham last year, will be the backup quarterback.

Graham, meanwhile, will do what he can to help the team. He'll also get ready for what hopefully will be a healthier future at Ohio State.

"He's such a positive kid," Wardynski said. "He's been great out there at practice helping out. Just a terrific kid."

Getting the hang of it: St. Francis junior quarterback Collin O'Donnell is making his seventh varsity start at the position tonight against Marian Central. It's about the eighth start total behind center for O'Donnell.

A wingback as a freshman, O'Donnell moved to quarterback on the sophomore squad last season. He got his leg broken on the first possession, coach Greg Purnell said. As an eighth-grader he'd torn an ACL in the same leg.

The 155-pound O'Donnell won the varsity quarterback spot in a close contest that extended into the regular season, and he has run for 240 yards and 3 touchdowns and completed 22 of 38 passes for 317 yards, 4 touchdowns and no interceptions.

"Our quarterback is really developing well for a young guy that'd never quarterbacked before. This will be the seventh game he's ever quarterbacked," Purnell said of O'Donnell, the younger brother of graduated all-Suburban Catholic Conference defensive back Ryan O'Donnell.

Collin O'Donnell is one of the ingredients that has helped the Spartans score 51, 52 and 54 points the last three games. Particularly impressive were those 51 points scored against state power Montini.

"We're just happy we've been able to progress," Purnell said. "We don't look at the number of points we're scoring, we're just trying to concentrate on our execution."

Scramble-rooski: At times Naperville Central's offense looked chaotic in last Friday's 24-21 win over Naperville North.

Redhawks quarterback Nick Linne couldn't find an open receiver, the blocking broke down and Linne started to scramble, first in one direction, then another.

Finally, Linne defied the broken-down play to find a receiver downfield for a big gain. Not just once but a few times.

Was it luck or part of a grand plan?

"We'll do a scramble drill (in practice)," said Redhawks coach Mike Stine. "We'll run a pass route and then we scramble. The play breaks down, Nick will start scrambling around. The receivers then gotta break the routes off.

"It's not just a free-for-all," he said. "It looks chaotic, but we practice it."

The scramble plays significantly swung the momentum in last Friday's game.

The first time, Linne converted a third-and-7 with a 33-yard pass to Cam Brate that gave the Redhawks first-and-goal at the 7-yard line. Two plays later, Linne scored the game's first touchdown.

"A lot of that goes out to our quarterback coach (J.R. Rexilius)," Linne said. "We work the same drills every day and a lot of times it can get tedious.

"I think a lot of times it can be a heartbreaker for them," he said. "They think they're so close to getting you down. That can definitely shut down a good defense."

Free football: Willowbrook will be celebrating its homecoming in style this weekend. The Warriors won't be charging admission at Saturday's District 88 game against Addison Trail.

"I think it's great," said Warriors coach Mark Olson. "The school would really like to see all the alumni come out and see the new field."

Both District 88 schools are enjoying new fields with artificial surfaces, and the timing turned out to be the perfect present for the 50th anniversary of Willowbrook's opening.

This weekend's celebration begins at 8 a.m. Saturday with a pancake breakfast at the high school, followed by a parade in Villa Park.

The winner of the game receives the District 88 trophy, currently in Addison Trail's possession after last year's 34-13 victory.

Hanidu can-do: Naperville North fell to 3-3 overall and 1-3 in the DuPage Valley Conference with last week's loss to Naperville Central.

Given what the Huskies have been through injury-wise, though, things could be a lot worse.

One of the major bright spots has been the emergence of senior running back Idris Hanidu, who gained 206 yards on 15 carries and scored a touchdown against Naperville Central.

"Idris is a heck of a back, isn't he?" said Huskies coach Larry McKeon. "He does it all for us."

Part of what the injuries have done is force Naperville North to commit more to its traditional double-wing offense as opposed to the more pass-friendly spread. Linebacker Nick Lifka moved to fullback and Hanidu from fullback to one of the wings.

Arnas Gintautas, another linebacker, went to offensive line and sophomore Nick Krejci took over at center. Dan Easley, the lone returning starter to the offensive line, came back from injury last Friday to further solidify the line.

Add it all up - including quarterback Matt LaCosse's 62 rushing yards against the Redhawks - and you can expect to see the double-wing grinding out a bunch of yardage in the weeks ahead.

Hanidu, who enters the weekend with 720 rushing yards and 7 touchdowns, will be leading the charge.

"We're starting to get a little more synchronization in our offensive line," McKeon said, "so it makes Idris look a lot better."

Neuqua visits a football Cathedral: After watching Cathedral on film, Neuqua Valley coach Bryan Wells said Indiana's No. 1-ranked team would be the best Neuqua had ever played.

His opinion wasn't swayed in Cathedral's 63-34 victory last Friday in Indianapolis - though for awhile Neuqua gave even more than it got.

"They were very good," Wells said. "I felt like we played very well with them in the first half. I think we scored more points than they've had scored on them all year (34 to 32 against Warren, Ind.), maybe the most yards. Things just kind of imploded in the third quarter, but I felt like we did some pretty decent stuff."

The Wildcats, who held a brief 21-20 lead late in the second quarter on Bobby Herzberger's 99-yard kickoff return, did decent stuff against a quarterback, Kofi Hughes, verbally committed to Indiana. Wells said Cathedral's free safety has been offered by Stanford, and one of last year's lineman is at Florida.

Wells said he took a couple things away from this one-year contract: "One, what an elite program looks like; and two, we and the competition we play aren't that far from it."

Despite the score there was no backing down by either team.

"I think it was good experience for our team, all in all," Wells said. "I think the further we get away from it the better experience it'll be, in our minds."

It also was a gutty move since it was Neuqua's fourth loss of the season, in the midst of one of the area's toughest schedules. To make the playoffs, the Wildcats must win out against St. Charles North, St. Charles East and Elgin.

"After this year I think the whole thing that 'Neuqua doesn't play anybody' is out the window," Wells said.