Saints' Allen excels

St. Charles East junior Wes Allen eludes Neuqua Valley's Britt Andros earlier this year. Allen has more than 2,000 rushing yards and 28 touchdowns in his first two varsity seasons.
(Danielle Gardner/Sun-Times News Group)

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In a conference filled with talented tailbacks, St. Charles East junior Wes Allen almost gets lost in the shuffle.

However, it's hard to overlook Allen's consistency in his first two varsity seasons.

Allen's statistics are nothing short of impressive. He finished the regular season as the area's fourth-leading rusher with 1,041 yards and 13 touchdowns on 167 carries.

Combine those numbers with his 996 rushing yards as a sophomore, and Allen has a grand total of 2,037 rushing yards on 324 attempts and 28 total touchdowns in just two short years.

Allen will look to add to those numbers when the Saints host Granite City in the first round of the Class 7A playoffs Friday.

"Wes has great speed and vision, but a lot of backs have that," East coach Ted Monken said. "Most importantly, he's coachable. He does exactly what he's coached to do. He hits the holes like he's supposed to, he hits his aiming point and he protects the football.

"It's all those little intangibles that make a good back a great back, and hopefully when all is said and done he'll be a great back."

The graduation of former Saints standout John Brown -- the 2005 Courier News Player of the Year -- left East with a glaring shortage in its offensive backfield in 2006.

The Saints tinkered with moving Caleb Clausen to the tailback position, but his talents were better served as a receiver. That made Monken and his staff turn to Allen, and the sophomore responded in a major way.

Allen made his first big splash by running for 146 yards and four touchdowns in Week 3 of the 2006 season. He added three more multi-touchdown games as well as a pair of 200-yard rushing games before the season was through.

Allen said there is no doubt he's benefitted from that invaluable experience.

"It definitely made a difference because I was more used to the speed on the varsity level," Allen said. "I could focus on the smaller things, like making certain reads and reading the blocks."

Allen said his main focus this season has been improving his vision on the field and keeping his feet moving once he sustains a hit.

He's continued to impress in 2007 with four more games with multiple rushing touchdowns and four more games with 100 rushing yards or more. East left guard Alex Putz, who also blocked for Allen last year, says Allen's talents have grown substantially.

"He's changed a lot," Putz said. "He hits the hole so much harder and he just keeps going and never goes down. He's always improving."

Through two seasons, Allen's average of 10.2 yards per game and 6.3 yards per carry put him in the company of the Upstate Eight Conference's other elite tailbacks.

However, with Neuqua Valley's Anton Wilkins, Bartlett's Vinnie Libreri, Waubonsie Valley's Kenny Harrington and Elgin's Kenny Williams all set to graduate, Allen will be the league's elder statesman when it comes to running backs next year.

If he continues at his current pace, Allen should have no problem reaching 3,000 rushing yards for his varsity career. It won't hurt that he'll have most of his offensive line back next year.

Putz is the only senior starter on the line this season. Junior left guard Blake Griffiths, junior right tackle Brennan Walls, sophomore Rafael Flores and sophomore tight end Jess Striedel will likely return to their starting roles, giving Monken plenty of reason for optimism.

"We're excited about where we're at, but we're also excited about the future because we're pretty young," Monken said. "We think we could have a nice nucleus on the offensive line and with our running game."