Oswego stops Romeoville ride
ROMEOVILLE -- After averaging over 33 points per game and scoring at least 20 points in every outing, Romeoville's football team was shut down on Friday night.
And the offensive woes couldn't have come at a worse time since the Spartans needed a victory over Oswego in order to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2002.
Instead, the Panthers scored a pair of touchdowns in each half and went on to post a 27-0 Southwest Prairie Conference victory over Romeoville.
The Spartans (5-4, 3-4) posted their first winning season since 2002 but needed a win since their point total with five wins wouldn't qualify them for postseason play.
Oswego (7-2, 6-1) also had plenty of incentive for the game. With the victory, the Panthers captured a share of the SPC title with Minooka, which beat Plainfield Central.
"I commend Oswego defensively since they're the first team to stop us all year," Spartans coach Jeff Kuna said. "That's the best defense that we played against all year, by far.
"I thought our defense stepped up and we played better than we have the last few weeks. But unfortunately on the offensive side we weren't able to put the ball into the endzone."
With tailback Derrick Lewis out due to sickness, the Spartans had to rely mainly on a singleback offense, with Cameron Stingily rushing for 83 yards on 16 carries.
The troubles began for the Spartans on their opening possession when Dan Howell blocked a punt by Matt Gillis and the visitors took over at the Spartan 31.
Two plays after converting on a fourth and 7 play, Oswego found the end zone for the first time when Brandon Lang scored on a 14-yard run just 3:33 into the game.
Oswego went ahead 14-0 with 3:17 remaining in the second quarter when Sean Danielson went over the left side with a 4-yard run.
The Spartans had just three first downs in the first half, with all three coming on one possession. After the blocked punt, they had four punts and an interception.
A bad snap gave the Panthers the ball at the Spartan 7 early in the third quarter and John Hugunin made it 21-0 with 3:20 gone when he scored on a 7-yard run.
Romeoville reached the Oswego 28 early in the final quarter following a 26-yard pass from Gillis to Erick Pierce.
But the drive ended four plays later when Chris Bagley intercepted a Gillis pass at the Panthers' 14.
Oswego needed just five plays to collect its final score, which came with 10:03 left when Adam Brooking went in from a yard out.
Despite falling short of the playoffs, the five-win season was still a big step for a program that had won only eight times in the previous six seasons combined.
"The kids followed the things that we asked them to do last year and it showed this year," Kuna said. "If we could have gotten a couple of breaks we could have been a 7-2 team.
"They made a commitment to become better football players in the offseason. We came up a little bit short of the playoffs but it tells us we just have to work that much harder."
Comment on this story.
heraldnewsonline.com
