Spears leads West Aurora past Elgin

AURORA -- Buck Drach's been around high school football a long time and he had the ultimate compliment for West Aurora running back Leon Spears.

"He's the best tailback I've ever coached and the fastest one," Drach said moments after Spears dazzled again for the second straight week.

Spears had 24 rushes for 191 yards and three touchdowns during the Blackhawks' 28-6 victory against Elgin on Friday night in West's home opener at Ken Zimmerman Field.

A week ago, Spears had 194 yards rushing and three touchdowns in West's victory against East Aurora.

"Spears is a tremendous back," Elgin coach Dave Bierman said. "He's explosive. He's special."

West was sharp on its first two possessions marching 83 and 62 yards, respectively.

Quarterback Malcohm Wood (5 of 14 100 yards with one touchdown and one interception) found receiver Aviance King (three receptions for 84 yards) for a 38-yard touchdown pass to give the Blackhawks a 7-0 lead on their first possession. Spears made it 14-0 with the first of his three rushing TDs on West's second drive.

After the opening quarter, both teams hit the skids offensively as the defenses took over, which allowed West to maintain a 14-point advantage at halftime.

Elgin (0-2) had its chances. The Maroons' first three second-half possessions ended in West (2-0) territory.

"If you can't sustain drives, you can't score," Bierman said. "We've still got way too many breakdowns offensively assignment-wise. We're inconsistent. Some plays look real good one time and then they don't the next time. It comes down consistency and execution."

Junior quarterback Jake Meyer made his first varsity start for the Maroons because senior quarterback Ryan Parks, who started in last week's overtime loss to Dundee-Crown, was unavailable.

Meyer, who completed 8 of 27 passes for 67 yards one touchdown and one interception, struggled with his timing and accuracy. But he did toss a touchdown pass to receiver Jordan Smith in the final minute.

"We need to start blocking better, running the ball 100 percent, catching balls and work on my timing," Meyer said. "I haven't worked much with the first string in practice. Once I get some more time to work with them, we'll start to come together."

Elgin remained within striking distance until West quickly navigated 65 yards with Spears and Brandon Warren gobbling up chunks of yards at a time. Spears capped the five-play scoring with a 10-yard run to make it 21-0 with 11 minutes remaining in fourth quarter.

"I talked to the offensive line and I told them they could trust me with the ball and I could trust them to block for me," Spears said.

Drach said West simply overwhelmed Elgin.

"Give Elgin a lot of credit – that is a pretty good football team," Drach said. "They don't have that many kids on their sideline and a lot of them were going both ways and we finally just wore them down."

Elgin running back Jordan Dean led the Maroons with 15 rushes for 69 yards. Dean, who also plays defensive back, left the game in the third quarter with an apparent left-leg injury. Bierman said he expects Dean to be ready for next week's contest at Crystal Lake Central.

West also was hit by the injury bug with lineman Fetim Azemi and running back Tray Peoples leaving the game because of leg injuries.

West Aurora 28, Elgin 6

Elgin     0    0   0    6   —   6

West    14  0   0   14   — 28

First quarter

West — King 38 pass from Wood (Clarence Davies kick) 4:46

West — Spears 2 run (Davies kick) :44

Fourth quarter

West — Spears 10 run (Davies kick ) 11:00

West — Spears 13 run (Davies kick) 6:41

Elgin — Smith 8 pass from Meyer (run failed) :14.9

Team statistics          WA            Elgin

First downs                   12                10

Comp.-att-int.            6-15-1         8-27-1

Passing yards              106                 67

Rushing-att-yds.       40-246           32-119

Total yards                 352                 186

Fumbles-lost              3-2                   2-1

Penalties-yards        13-105               9-66

Individual statistics

Rushing:

West – Spears 24-191; Tray Peoples 6-37; Wood 4-(minus)25; Brandon Warren 3-46; Dexter Brinston 1-3; Marcos Villanueva 1-5; Jarick Phillips 1-2; Team 1(minus)13.

Elgin – Jordan Dean 15-69; Craig McKenzie 3-21; Larry Lockett 1-0; Cory Michalik 2-1; Meyer 4-(minus)12; Earl Holloway 5-10; Samaj Collier 2-30.

Passing:

West — Wood 5-14-1-100. Curtis Townsend 1-1-0-6.

Elgin — Meyer 8-27-1-67.

Receiving:

West — King 3-84; Dexter Brinston 1-12; Peoples 1-4; Villanueva 1-6.

Elgin — Cory Michalik 1-(minus)5; Tim Newcombe 3-26; Dean 1-5; Michael Riggio 2-31; Jordan Smith 1-8.