Not everything went according to form during the seventh week of the high school football season. Here's a glimpse at some of the highlights and notes which made it such an interesting week.
For updated area rankings, please check Sunday's edition of The News-Gazette. There will be some shakeups.
HE’S BACK!
For the first time since 2007, Jud Wienke played in a football game for Tuscola High School. The junior suffered a broken collarbone in the preseason, but received medical clearance earlier on Friday to play and saw limited action in the Warriors’ 28-0 win over Maroa-Forsyth. His only pass attempt was incomplete.
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
A question submitted to Fred Kroner on Thursday for his weekly on-line chat was written by a person who signed “Lenny” from “Tuscola” as his name. Some folks who saw the question made the incorrect assumption that the writer was former Tuscola football assistant coach Lenny Sementi. The reaction was so pervasive that Sementi felt compelled to issue a statement. It said: “I am and always will be a Warrior fan. I did not and never have posted anything on Warrior Football. Someone has used my name to stir the pot and I do not appreciate it. I consider Rick Reinhart a friend and talk with him on a regular basis. Whoever asked the question ought to have the guts to use their own name. I do not know what Stan (Wienke) would have done to this point nor do I care. Once more, I am a Warrior fan, but do not have an opinion on the internal running of the program. It is not my business anymore. The new technology is giving more avenues to those that want to complain, but are not upstanding enough to do it without hiding their identity.”
EVENING THE SCORE
In the opening game of the season, Danville’s MykeTez Forman kicked a field goal on the final play of the game as the Vikings edged Bloomington, 30-28. On Friday, the law of averages were with the Purple Raiders. Bloomington’s Cody Hubbs blocked a Normal West field goal attempt as the final buzzer sounded and preserved BHS’ 16-14 triumph. Normal West held a 14-7 lead with 5:04 remaining in the game.
HERE WE GO
Entering the third week of the season, Tri-County had managed one touchdown in its first two games and had lost 12 of its last 13 games, dating back to 2007. Since starting Little Okaw Valley Conference play, the Derek Scott-led Titans have done an about-face. Friday’s 37-0 triumph over Cerro Gordo/DeLand-Weldon was the team’s fifth in succession. Scott had scoring runs of 40, 67, 49 and 13 yards and amassed 243 yards on 22 carries. The effort lifted his season totals to 1,198 yards rushing.
THE PLAYOFF PICTURE
Area schools which reserved a berth in the postseason with their sixth win on Friday were Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley, LeRoy. Milford/Cissna Park, Oakwood/Armstrong-Potomac and Salt Fork. They join three area unbeatens (Danville, St. Thomas More and Unity), which clinched their advancements a week earlier. Five-win schools which need one more victory to guarantee a playoff game are Fisher, Mahomet-Seymour, Monticello, St. Joseph-Ogden, Tri-County and Villa Grove. Twelve other area schools have either four or three wins and are among the ones still in contention for a spot in the 256-school field.
DANVILLE’S DYNAMIC DEFENSE
At the point the running clock started in Danville’s 46-0 victory over Champaign Central, the Vikings had allowed one running play to gain more than 2 yards (Doug Kyrouac had a 6-yard gain) and one pass play to gain more than 9 yards (Kyrouac had an 11-yard completion to Tyler Finkbeiner. Danville’s defensive catalysts included Dalton Allison, Eddie Clark, Cameron Ford, Shavon Morris and Tommy Rose, who teamed up for seven tackles for loss in the first half.
BACKUPS TO THE RESCUE
Neither Decatur Eisenhower nor Urbana had their usual starting quarterback available for Friday’s game at McKinley Field, a game which would provide one school its first victory of the season. Kyle Clevenger filled in for the injured Trey Russell at Urbana and had 108 yards between rushing and passing. Kyle Johnson stepped in for Zach Shugart, who was listed as “unavailable” by Eisenhower coach Rick Austin. Johnson had 110 yards between rushing and passing in the Panthers’ 20-6 triumph.
A SPECIAL DAY
St. Joseph-Ogden hopes to make Saturday’s 1 p.m. home game against Carlyle a special one for team trainer Casey Hug. His wife, Kathy, who works for the UI athletic department as an associate athletic director, recently underwent surgery for breast cancer. Coach Dick Duval, and his staff, are planning on wearing pink hats in her honor and donations for breast cancer research will be taken at the gate and made in Kathy Hug’s name.
NOTEBOOK ITEMS
Bismarck-Henning senior placekicker Ian Park raised his streak to 20 consecutive conversions, which is the entire number of extra points he has attempted this year. ... Speaking of kickers, Unity’s Jared Miller, a 305-pound defensive lineman, hit 3 of 3 extra-point tries against Monticello. ... Champaign Central quarterback Doug Kyrouac needs 84 yards to become the first player in Champaign-Urbana history to reach the 3,000-yard mark for career passing. ... Westville teammates Matt Maser and Brendon Severado nearly reached the 100-yard marks in two offensive categories in a 31-26 loss to visiting Oakwood/Armstrong-Potomac. Maser passed for 177 yards and rushed for 97. Severado rushed for 113 yards and had another 98 yards on seven pass receptions. ... Arthur-Lovington senior Justin Schuring’s 162-yard rushing effort against East Central raised his career total to 2,137 and leaves him 19 yards shy of breaking Zack Kingery’s all-time school rushing record. ... Danville received some help on three of its first-half scoring marches downfield against Central. The Maroons were whistled for four pass interference penalties before intermission, two on one drive. ... Centennial’s Shaquille Traylor needs 37 yards to become the eighth different Charger to rush for 1,000 yards in a season. The school has had 10 backs gain 1,000 yards with one athlete (Mikel Leshoure) reaching that plateau three times and another (Quincy Washington) doing so twice. ... LeRoy has had three athletes eclipse the 100-yard mark in rushing in games this season, including Kyle Eastham, who ran for 138 in a 40-point win over Ridgeview. ... Central’s homecoming king, Edwin McGhee, caught one of the team’s eight completions against Danville. ... St. Thomas More's 33-0 shutout over Paxton-Buckley-Loda was the team's fourth, tying the school record set by the 2008 team.
GAME BALLS
JUSTIN FLINKMAN, Milford/CPCI. Senior has snagged 11 of the Bearcats’ 12 pass completions in the past three weeks, turning them into gains of 295 yards. Against Schlarman, he caught two scoring strikes from Kristopher Evans.
SETH GOOCH, Unity. Junior joining Rockets’ quarterback Dylan Sturgeon as big-play artists. Gooch intercepted his seventh pass of the season, had a 53-yard scoring run and returned a kickoff 85 yards for a score against Monticello.
PHILLIP MEYER, Tuscola. Sophomore quarterback had his best rushing game (134 yards) of the season and also passed for 109 yards, accounting for 69 percent of the team’s total offense in its shutout upset over Maroa-Forsyth.
JUSTIN MARCH, Danville. Junior followed up on last week’s three-TD performance by running into the end zone four times in the Vikings’ 46-0 victory over Central in Champaign. Defensively, he’s averaging nearly 15 tackles per game.
RYAN OHL, Mahomet-Seymour. Senior had his second 100-yard receiving performance in three weeks, and third of the season, including the TD that put M-S in the lead for good (7-3) in the second half of its conquest of Bloomington Central Catholic.
TEAMS OF THE WEEK
MAHOMET-SEYMOUR
The Bulldogs’ 14-5 upset over top-ranked Bloomington Central Catholic marked the first time M-S had beaten the Saints since 2005 and snapped BCC’s 25-game regular-season winning streak. M-S survived despite committing three fourth-quarter turnovers in its own territory, thanks to a defense which yielded only 186 total yards.
TUSCOLA
The Warriors continued one trend and ended another in upsetting sixth-ranked Maroa-Forsyth (which was ranked No. 1 in Class 2A to start the season). Tuscola’s 28-0 win was its fourth victory and its fourth shutout. Before Friday, however, the Warriors had beaten three opponents with two combined wins and had lost to three foes with 15 total wins. Maroa-Forsyth brought a 5-1 record into the game at Tuscola.
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