Race for WSC Gold likely to go down to the wire
Thanks to last weekend's football games, the race for the West Suburban Gold title is suddenly up for grabs.
Between Willowbrook's win over Hinsdale South and Downers Grove South's win over Addison Trail, the Gold's favorite and its defending champion both went down. Now anything's possible in the final five weeks.
“It's great that we're all real competitive,” said Hinsdale South coach Mike Barry. “That's why you play the games. Last week was a wake-up call for us. All our goals are still attainable, this just makes it a little more difficult.”
Leyden and Morton are the only unbeatens in the Gold, but they've each only played one conference game and they both beat winless Proviso East. Addison Trail and Downers South hope to bring them back to the pack this week.
If that happens and Hinsdale South scores an expected victory over Proviso East, six of the seven Gold teams will have one conference loss. It'll take weeks for the logjam to clear for the eventual champion ... or champions.
As of Week 5, everyone controls their own destiny.
“At the beginning of the season, we wanted to win another Gold title, and we can still do that,” said Addison Trail coach Paul Parpet Jr. “It's going to take some work, but we can do it.”
Turning it around:
Despite losing its first four games, Naperville North still has confidence in a turnaround this season.
“I still believe this team can go on a run and make the playoffs,” said Huskies coach Sean Drendel. “I know it's hard to see when you're losing, but we're seeing a lot of positives.”
Short-handed the first two weeks, Naperville North lost twice by a combined 8 points. Then came a loss to Wheaton North and last week's 7-0 defeat to Lake Park in a driving rainstorm.
With an improving defense and a potent run game led by Jalen Lockhart, Matt Montgomery and Cam Hardy, there's reason for optimism. But the Huskies are also realistic.
The margin for error is incredibly small, and this week they face a Glenbard North team coming off two straight wins. If the turnaround happens, it must start Friday.
“The thing I like about our team is that there are no excuses,” Drendel said. “Our guys understand where we're at and they're still working.”
We meet again:
For the third time in 11 games, this weekend Wheaton North and Lake Park meet in DuPage Valley Conference action.
Both of last year's games went in Wheaton North's favor, costing Lake Park a spot in the playoffs when the Lancers were denied a berth despite having five wins. While that doesn't present primary motivation for the Lancers, it's definitely in the back of their minds.
“It's there but we're really not talking much about it,” said Lake Park coach Chris Roll. “I think a lot of our seniors are motivated after last season, but they're motivated for every game.”
This is another pivotal game in the DuPage Valley Conference, where Naperville Central, Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley all sit atop the standings with 3-1 records.
Wheaton North and Lake Park also have one league loss apiece, but they're technically a half-game back in the standings because they've played one DVC game less than the leaders. To keep pace, both teams need a win.
“There's motivation every week,” Roll said. “Every game is the biggest.”
Hitting his stride:
Neuqua Valley's Western Michigan-bound tight end Brett Borske captured his share of the limelight for the first time this season in the Wildcats' 28-14 win over Wheaton Warrenville South.
Held without a reception in limited targets in Neuqua's opener against Metea Valley, the 6-foot-6, 235-pound senior got hurt right off the bat against Naperville Central, then finished with 2 catches for 15 yards in Neuqua's win over Waubonsie Valley.
Saturday he erupted for 4 catches and 113 yards with a long reception of 41 yards.
“It was definitely more what the defense was giving us,” said Neuqua coach Bill Ellinghaus, who also has Division I candidates Isaiah Robertson and Owen Piche at his disposal.
“Brett's big, he plays physical, he's always going to be a threat for us, but it was just nice to be able to take advantage of him based on what the defense was giving us. Now Brett can be a real threat in the middle of the field.”
Ellinghaus — who says Borske appears “about 8-6” going up to catch a ball — was just as impressed with the player's line blocking. His game against WW South earned the best blocking grades of the season, the coach said.
“He's starting to be a dominating force not just catching the ball but also blocking on the offensive line,” Ellinghaus said.
Defense wins:
Last Friday was less suited for football than it was for ducks. West Chicago picked off a couple of them in its 16-13 win over East Aurora.
The Wildcats earned their first win of the season by scoring half its points while on defense, on a safety and on senior defensive back Justin Yackey's 80-yard interception return.
Yackey picked off an underthrown ball then picked up blocks by alert defensive linemen and fellow defensive backs to navigate one of the few decent spots of the field, the sideline.
“The best part of the whole thing is Yackey showed a speed level I didn't think he had,” said Wildcats coach Ted Monken.
Another senior defensive back, Cliff Kim, also returned an interception about 55 yards into the end zone, but a holding call brought the play back. The Wildcats punched it in on a 10-yard run from David Poisson (pronounced poy-zon) with Mikey Bibbs snatching Lucas Seeman's 2-point conversion pass away from an East Aurora defender.
“It was like going to the dog track,” Monken said of the conditions. “When it rains you bet on the heaviest dog on the track because he doesn't spin out on the turns.”
Pick-6:
West Chicago wasn't alone with a defensive-led victory. Fenton scored the only points of the game, a 6-0 victory Saturday against Elmwood Park, on linebacker Brian Jaramillo's 52-yard interception return of a screen pass.
“Winning ugly, I guess, is winning,” said Bison coach Mark Kos. “A win's a win.”
Jaramillo's play, however, was pretty.
“(He) read the screen pass perfectly and broke on the quarterback's drop, and he just made a great football play,” Kos said. “We teach the kids what to read and how to react and he did exactly what we coached him to do, and he made an athletic play to pick it off and made his way to the end zone. It was perhaps a nice foreshadowing of a great career ahead of him.”
A sophomore, Jaramillo's dedication over the summer caught the varsity coaches' attention.
“By the end of the time when we broke camp in June, we knew we had a great young man, and unfortunately for our sophomore coaches, they saw the writing on the wall,” Kos said.
Friday Knight lights:
Gone are the portable, fuel-powered light standards that had passers-by wishing for respiratory masks.
In at IC Catholic Prep's Plunkett Athletic Complex are stadium lights atop 80-foot poles. They'll be used, officially, the first time Friday for the Knights' 7:15 p.m. homecoming football game against Aurora Central Catholic at Lewis Stadium.
This makes Glenbard West's legendary Duchon Field the only one among DuPage County's 28 football fields to lack lights, a big part of the legend.
Knights coach Bill Krefft played on grass, sweating under harsh Saturday sun while helping IC win a Class 3A title as a two-way player his senior year in 2002. Now he coaches on 100 yards of Plunkett's 147,648 square feet of FieldTurf, which also contains the area's only all-turf baseball diamond.
Krefft didn't recall much talk of night football in his playing days at IC, but admitted, “Playing Saturday afternoons, I think everyone thinks, ‘What if?' ”
The complex, initially planned beginning in 2007, broke ground in April 2013. Additional lighting is still in the works for the baseball diamond, but the “Building Our Future” capital campaign regarding Plunkett is near total fruition. The cast of people responsible is as long as IC Catholic's football roster. It includes familiar legacy names such as Mulligan, Brinkman, Sutton, Cronin, Haggerty, Cheng and many others.
“It's an honor and a privilege to be the first team to play under the lights at Plunkett. I think the atmosphere will be electric,” Krefft said, no pun intended.
“I thank all the people that support IC and allow it to happen. It's just a great time to be a Knight. Between the turf and the lights you couldn't ask for a better place to play.”
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