Oswego runs over Plainfield South

Oswego's Tim Riley celebrates with his team after he scored his second first half touchdown against Plainfield South.
(Terence Guider-Shaw/For the Beacon News)

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

JOLIET -- Plainfield South High School coach Mike Briscoe knew what his team would be facing on Friday night.

He knew that Southwest Prairie Conference co-leader Oswego was a big, strong club that liked to run the football. And as much as he and his staff prepared the Cougars for the powerful Panthers, they just couldn't find a way to stop them.

Oswego got 187 yards on the ground from Northwestern University-bound senior Tim Riley and the Panthers powered their way to a 36-7 Southwest Prairie win over the Cougars.

"Our objective tonight was to slow their running game enough to make them put the ball in the air and get away from their power game," Briscoe said. "But they controlled us at the line of scrimmage and we weren't able to stop them. We contained them and stopped the big play but we just couldn't force them to have to drive the length of the field."

Indeed, Oswego (5-1, 4-0) used a short field most of the night. The Panthers' two first-half touchdown drives covered just 35 and 57 yards, respectively. South (4-2, 2-2) was able to stay in the game by twice forcing Oswego to turn the ball over on fourth down inside the Cougars' 30.

The Oswego defense, though, was just as powerful as the offense. The Panthers held South to just 24 total yards in the first half and only 162 for the game. And 118 came after the Cougars had extended their lead to 29-0 late in the third quarter.

South senior running back Chris Brown had an especially frustrating night as he was limited to just 15 rushing yards on 12 attempts. The Cougars finished with 44 rushing yards and 29 of those came on their final possession after the benches cleared on both sides.

One bright spot for Briscoe was the combination of junior quarterback Jeff Kohl and senior receiver Luke Gundersen. The two hooked up for five completions, 102 yards and South's lone touchdown. Three of the plays -- a 34-yarder in the third quarter, the 24-yard TD and another 28-yard connection -- were the longest offensive plays for either team.

"Kohl's come a long way," said Briscoe. "He's only a junior but he showed a lot of poise against a strong pass rush tonight and made some big plays for us. Gundersen is the kind of kid that always gives 120 percent all the time."

Kohl finished 7-of-14 for 118 yards, with a pair of interceptions. Gundersen caught 5 of Kohl's throws for his 102 yards and Andrew Turk grabbed a pair for 16 yards.

"Oswego did a good job of taking Turk out of the offense but Kohl was able to find Luke deep a few times," said Briscoe. "We have to forget this one and come back against Morris next week. They are always a very solid and tough team. We'll have a lot of homecoming distractions, so we have to make sure that we stay focused."