PLAINFIELD -- Fans of the Plainfield Central High School football team may have feared a let down Friday when the Wildcats squared off against Romeoville.
After all, Central handed Oswego its first Southwest Prairie Conference defeat last week.
But the Wildcats continued to roll with a 41-6 win over the Spartans in Southwest Prairie play. The win kept the Wildcats in first place.
Central (7-1, 6-0) built a 27-0 halftime lead over Romeoville (2-6, 0-6) and never looked back.
"I'm happy with how our defense played," Plainfield Central coach John Jackson said. "We did make some mistakes and came out a little flat to begin the game.
"But we made some adjustments in the locker room at halftime and played well in the second half. We corrected those mistakes and I thought we did well overall."
Plainfield Central scored the game's first touchdown with 6:46 left in the first quarter. Running back Brian Meeks ran into the end zone from 7 yards to cap a 7-play, 39-yard drive.
Then with 4:08 remaining in the first quarter, the Wildcats scored again. This time, Anthony Bjorklund stripped Romeoville's Cameron Stingily of the ball. Bjorklund ran 25 yards for the score to make it 14-0.
With 1:37 remaining in first-quarter play, Wildcats quarterback Alex Parks threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to Brock Douglas. That put the Wildcats ahead 20-0.
"We got into a big hole and never were able to get out of it," Romeoville coach Jeff Kuna said. "But you have to hand it to Plainfield Central. They're undefeated in conference and played very well again tonight.
"I'm happy with the kids' effort, just not the results. Mentally, we were in the game. But physically, Plainfield Central simply wore us down. They are a stronger team, especially in the pits."
The second quarter's lone score came on a 3-yard run by Alonzo Morgan with 2:37 remaining before halftime. That TD was set up by an interception from senior defensive back Nick Cialoni, who returned the pick from the Romeoville 49 to the 16.
Morgan's touchdown gave the Wildcats a comfortable 27-0 halftime lead.
"That's a difficult hole to get out of, especially against a team like Plainfield Central," Kuna said.
"But again, they're a fine team and played a good game again tonight. We simply don't match up against them. They're a strong team."
The Wildcats' defense limited Romeoville to 59 first-half yards. The Spartans rushed for 20 yards in the first half and passed for 39.
Plainfield Central had 57 rushing yards and 71 passing in the first half for 128 yards.
Meeks, a 5-foot-10, 160-pound junior, contributed 2 more touchdowns in the second half. His second TD of the game was a 10-yard burst to cap a 3-play, 45-yard drive. The highlight of the drive was a 37-yard run by Matt Lancor.
With 5:25 left in the third quarter, Meeks scored from 5 yards to make the score 41-0. That 15-yard touchdown drive was set up by Tim Eishen's fumble recovery.
"Alex Parks did a good job of directing the offense," Jackson said. "When we needed him to throw the ball, he did it effectively. We thought that Romeoville would blitz, and they did, and Alex did a good job of picking it up.
"Alex displayed good composure. That was one of the keys to our success in this game. This was a nice win coming off a good victory over Oswego last week.
"Now we have to keep it going next week in our final regular-season game."
Romeoville scored with 1:34 left in the game when Stingily scored on an 11-yard run.
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