The picks of the litter
Johnson, Martinez help Plainfield N. hold off Joliet
PLAINFIELD -- Joliet Township High School was on the verge of one of those All-American rallies Saturday night to open the new football season.
But Plainfield North linebacker Derice Johnson decided he had seen enough.
Johnson deflected a pass from JT junior quarterback Justin Stephenson, made an athletic move to corral the interception and raced 23 yards to paydirt with 3 minutes 55 seconds left, triggering North's 28-12 victory.
"We had some balls go off our hands that we could have intercepted earlier, too," Tigers coach Tim Kane noted. "That one was a great play on Derice's part. We really needed that at that point."
That's because the Steelmen, despite trailing 14-0 at half and seeing a golden opportunity go by the board just before the break, had rallied to steal the momentum and nearly tie the game. Only a missed two-point conversion with 6:30 remaining allowed North to maintain its slim lead.
The Steelmen defense, which played well throughout, forced a punt, and JT was back in business on its 24. But Johnson took matters into his own hands on a first-down pass into the flat. The third of four Tim Eulitz extra-point kicks made it 21-12 and more than a one-possession game.
On JT's next possession, Vidal Martinez intercepted Stephenson's fourth-and-18 heave and returned it 44 yards to the JT 14, setting up the final touchdown.
"We talked before the game about how we're up and down, up and down," JT coach Jason Aubry said. "We showed some good signs, but we have to be more consistent in what we're doing the whole game, especially offensively.
"It's not enough to complete passes, we need to get first downs, move the sticks."
Stephenson did complete 20-of-49 passes for 180 yards, and JT did manage 15 first downs. But thanks to the extreme pressure applied by North's defensive front of Johnny Lee, T.J. Cox, Casey Wilgosiewicz and Jim Theodeossopoulos and linebackers Johnson, Sean Williams, Keith Collins and and Vinny Baxter, Joliet netted minus-15 yards on the ground.
"In the first half, especially, we kept them off balance with a lot of stunts and blitzes," Kane said. "In the second half, they started to do a better job in their offense.
"When they started to take the momentum, and after they had beaten us last year (8-0), our guys could have quit. But they didn't. Instead we kept at it and made the big plays, a couple of big interceptions."
Both sides were having difficulty mounting any offense for the first quarter plus. But when Kane inserted Andrew Starks at quarterback in place of sophomore Bryce Corrigan early in the second quarter, the Tigers began to growl.
Facing a second-and-14 at his 21, Starks ran consecutive keepers for 27 and 14 yards to set up a first down at the Joliet 38. And after Jake Arnold, who battled JT's hard-hitting defense all night to finish with 94 yards in 25 carries, ran for 13, Starks lobbed a 25-yard TD pass to a wide-open Robbie Sanchez.
"Andrew jump-started our offense," Kane said. "But Bryce (Corrigan) is only a sophomore and he does a nice job, too. We're not ready to make any decision now (about whether he wants to settle on one quarterback)."
JT's next possession ended on a high snap out of punt formation, and the subsequent 19-yard loss handed North a first down at the Steelmen 13. Two plays later, Arnold crashed in from 5 yards out to make it 14-0 with 4:38 left in the half.
"On three of their four touchdowns, we gave them the field position to score," Aubry said. "On the other score, their second quarterback (Starks) came in and did a great job. He's a nice athlete.
"So overall, we played real well defensively. That's one of the good things tonight."
Joliet responded to its two-touchdown deficit with a march to a first-and-10 at the 14 as Stephenson hit Terrance Brooks (6 receptions for 65 yards) for 9 yards over the middle. But from there, the drive fizzled on a Steelmen penalty, Theodossopoulos' tackle for loss, a Collins/Wilgosiewicz sack and a heavy rush from Lee that caused a fourth-down incompletion.
At that, JT had one more shot before the break. Linebacker Eric Glover picked up a fumble and returned it 13 yards to the North 23 with 0:01 on the clock. But offsetting penalties and a dropped pass ended the half.
"We have to learn from tonight," Aubry said. "We have to learn to execute consistently."
Joliet also benefited from the turnover midway through the third quarter as senior safety Josh Padilla intercepted a tipped pass for a pretty interception and returned it 23 yards to the North 11. A down-and-out from Stephenson to Ronald Mitchell set up Justin Vandermeir's short touchdown run to make it 14-6. But the athletic Johnson blew in and blocked the extra point with his midsection.
The Steelmen's next possession began after Tyler Sukley pulled the ball from a North receiver for an interception at the Tigers' 47. A drive to paydirt, aided by a huge pass interference call on a fourth-and-20, ended when Mitchell scored from the 1. The two-point conversion was there for the taking, but the pass went awry.
JT would get no closer. Johnson and Martinez made sure of that.
