|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Sports
Overwhelming the Indians : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisOverwhelming the Indians
| Oswego football team dominates Minooka in SPC opener
| by Laura M. Medina
| 9/13/2012
|
Three different results to start the season have certainly provided excitement for head coach Brian Cooney's first turn at the helm of Oswego's varsity football squad, and its latest contest was no exception.
Cooney's Panthers took to the road last Friday night, overwhelming Minooka 42-0 in the Southwest Prairie Conference opener for both teams.
Every game has provided a unique set of twists, turns and outcomes for Oswego (2-1, 1-0 SPC) thus far, as it started the season with a 47-21 win at Geneva on Aug. 24 before stumbling slightly in a 54-28 home loss to Waubonsie Valley on Aug. 31.
But the Panthers seemingly tweaked their game plan and jumped out of the gate last week.
"You never quite know what you're going to get; fortunately, it's much different than (Aug. 31), that's for sure," Cooney said. "I said that I needed to make the adjustments that the team needed to make, and those adjustments were made. We changed the type of practices we had, we changed the tempo for the practices we had. What happened (last week) is a product of the kids buckling down and concentrating on what we needed to improve on and the coaches seeing what we needed to improve on with putting our kids in the right spot to be successful."
After forcing Minooka's offense off the field in three plays to start the game, senior quarterback Brett Wainwright led the Panthers out for their first series, driving them from midfield down to the 3-yard line, where senior running back Mickeel Stewart muscled his way in for the touchdown with 4:17 remaining in the first quarter. The 11-play drive ended with junior kicker Jason Kaney's extra point.
Once the Indians resumed control, the Panthers' defense again forced a three-and-out, putting the ball back in Wainwright's hands with another short field to work with. Eight snaps later, Stewart (23 carries, 88 yards, two touchdowns) scampered into the endzone from 17 yards out, while Kaney's point-after pushed the lead to 14-0 with 1.6 seconds remaining in the quarter.
"This is huge, and I credit the coaches for getting us ready," senior wide receiver Jack Kwiatkowski said. "It starts up front, and our offensive linemen were solid. Mickeel does a great job running, and that sets up the pass."
Neither team scored in its ensuing possession, but on the second snap of its next series, Minooka's offense fumbled the ball, only to watch Oswego's senior defensive lineman Christian Ornelas (four tackles) come up with it at the home side's 27-yard line.
Only five snaps were needed to get a score, as Wainwright called his own number from the 1. Kaney's third straight extra point made it a 21-0 game with 5:27 remaining in the half.
For as successful as Oswego's offense was from the get-go, it was the defense that truly showed up, as it limited Minooka to just 113 total yards and one first down - four in the entire game - with 3:27 remaining in the half.
"It shows that last week, things got a little bit loose," Cooney said of his team's defensive improvement from Week 2 to Week 3. "We identified that things needed to be tightened up, and that's exactly what we did. I give credit to coaches on both sides of the ball for implementing and developing the game plan, but when it's all said and done, you throw the kids on the field, and leave it up to them. They played an excellent game in all three phases."
But the Panthers' offensive success quickly shone again. Forced to start from their one 1-yard line following a booming 59-yard punt, the offense put together a solid possession with just under four minutes to go until halftime.
"That to us was huge, that Brett could drive an offense 99 yards all the way down right before the half with some time constraints," Cooney said.
Three straight passes to Kwiatkowski helped moved the chains during that series, and in no time, it was Wainwright finding an open Kwiatkowksi again for the score - an 11-yard reception followed by Kaney's point-after try to open a 28-0 lead over Minooka with 21.5 seconds left before intermission.
"That's credit to assistant coach John Harazin and assistant coach Marc Kersting," Kwiatkowski said. "They saw that I could get some open looks out at tight end, so they moved me around. Those were good calls and great throws by Brett."
Things moved quickly in the second half, as Oswego did all of its damage in the span of a few minutes early in the third quarter.
With Minooka facing a fourth-and-3 from about midfield, junior linebacker Sean Graff, who led the Panthers with five tackles, delivered a jarring sack on Minooka quarterback Joe Carnagio for an 8-yard loss, putting Oswego on the 48 to start their next series.
The Panthers' second snap turned into a 50-yard passing play from Wainwright to senior wide receiver Elliot McGaughy (five catches, 96 yards, touchdown) for the score. Kaney remained perfect on the night with his fifth extra point, and he would soon get a chance to make it 6-for-6 as the Indians' fumbled the kick-off at their own 26-yard line.
Oswego recovered the ball, and with freshman Steven Frank under center, provided an efficient drive that ended with a 6-yard scoring toss to Kwiatkowski (five receptions, 86 yards, two touchdowns). By then, Kaney's point-after made it a 42-0 and an insurmountable advantage for the home team with 5:59 left in the third and a running clock to keep things going.
"We just want to separate from every team in the conference this season, and Minooka was our top team," Stewart said. "We just have to move on and keep getting better."
In order to continue improving and start establishing some consistency as the weeks continue, Oswego will have to turn in another strong performance against fellow SPC foe Romeoville at home Friday in its Senior Night contest.
"We didn't want to miss an opportunity at Minooka (which Oswego defeated last year to capture the conference title), and let one slip to them and have it come back, and boom, they're winning the conference championship. We treated this is a playoff game," Cooney said.
"It's the right step, and it's what we want. One of our weekly goals is 1-0. All you can control is what you've got that week; you can't control anything else."
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
