Willowbrook wastes no time

Start fast and don't let up.

That's what Willowbrook running back Jack Jessen said the game plan was for the Warriors at Proviso East on Saturday afternoon. After a 42-0 defeat of the Pirates, it's pretty clear the visitors followed the script to perfection.

Jessen ran for a personal-best 3 touchdowns in the first half as Willowbrook took a 35-0 lead into the break and let the defense and the reserves take care of business the rest of the way.

"Our main focus was a high tempo. Keep it on them and don't let up," said Jessen, who scored on a 3-yard run that capped the Warriors 9-play, 78-yard drive to start the contest. "Just keep the tempo going."

Jessen added scoring runs of 20 yards and 1 yard in the second quarter while gaining 132 yards on 22 carries - all in the first two quarters. But Jessen was not a one-man wrecking crew; the Warriors offensive line controlled the play up front and quarterback M.J. Ranieri also came up big.

"We all felt pretty good about this game just going into it," Jessen said. "We practiced really hard and we actually got that extra day since it's a Saturday game. But yeah, we all felt really good about it, and it's really good that we can go both in the air and on the ground."

Ranieri completed 6 of 12 passes for 119 yards, including scoring plays of 20 yards to Mike Dembowski and 58 yards to Khalif Copeland. The 20-yarder to Dembowski was a perfect throw and a great catch in the corner of the end zone that gave Willowbrook a 14-0 lead just more than two minutes into the game.

"It's big to start fast," said Ranieri, whose first touchdown pass came after Proviso East had fumbled a kick return. "There were a couple missed throws that we'll work on and we'll get better. But we're feeling pretty good right now and we're all working hard."

Jessen's 20-yard touchdown on the first play of the second quarter pushed the lead to 21-0, and he followed that up with a 1-yarder. It was a five-touchdown lead at the half after Ranieri connected with Copeland on a pass over the middle that turned into a long touchdown as the speedy senior outran the Pirates defense to score untouched.

"They were starting to pack the box and do a better job up front so that opened some things up," Warriors coach Nick Hildreth said of his team's airstrikes. "We wanted to establish some things on the ground and we did that and that opened up some things in the passing game."

With the Warriors controlling play up front on both sides of the ball, Chris Diaz added 61 yards on 10 carries as the offense piled up 237 yards on the ground in the first half. The Willowbrook defense, meanwhile did not allow a first down in the first half as the team improved to 5-2 on the year.

"I thought we overall did a pretty good job," Hildreth said. "I thought their focus was good and I thought our mental prep was good this week."