With a decisive 41-0 home victory against Tinley Park on Oct. 16, Lemont's defense notched its third consecutive shutout, the fourth shutout overall, its fifth game allowing fewer than 10 points, and has yet to yield more than 16 points in a game this season.
Still, with one game to go in the regular season, the Lemont coaching staff is not ready to concede that its defense is playoff-ready.
The victory improved Lemont to 7-1, 4-1 in the South Suburban Blue while Tinley Park fell to 3-5, 1-4.
A victory at Bremen on Oct. 23 that closes out the regular season guarantees a share of the conference title.
However, if Hillcrest loses to T.F. North and Oak Forest falls to Tinley Park, the Indians are outright league champs.
"This was a good one for us. The kids came out and played hard, they had the focus that I was hoping for," Lemont coach Eric Michaelsen said. "We're playoff focused, we're playing for seeds. So we want to make sure we win next week, take care of our own business and then find out who we're going to play."
Michaelsen praised his defensive coordinator John Howell and defensive assistants John Coneset, Dave LaBarbera, and Dave Michalik for assembling a squad that has given up just 51 points in eight games this season.
"They do a good job of getting the kids prepared. The schemes that we run are good, but the kids go out and run the schemes. It's a nice combination," Michaelsen said.
Lemont's 3-4 defense is, as Michaelsen described it, "An aggressive defense, we work a lot on the fundamentals, the kids do a nice job with it."
Howell has set high standards for his defensive unit.
"We knew coming into the season we had several outstanding players returning. So we knew we had a nice nucleus to work around," Howell said. "Give these kids credit. They worked hard during the offseason. They never missed a day in the weight room. They were committed to the offseason program and its paying off for us right now."
Angel Cabral and John Driscoll anchor the defensive front line. Lineman Petar Vjestica is hoping to return for the Bremen game after suffering a concussion. Against Tinley Park, Esstathios Giafis filled-in effectively, according to Howell.
Throughout the season, Howell's unit has also been led by linebackers Connor Nagel, Kyle Krull, Jeffrey Peters and Cody Kamberos.
In the secondary, Allan Wielgus, Nicholas Forzley, Calyton Fejedelem, Kevin Gallagher and Robert Gialessas have all made major contributions.
Even after three consecutive shutouts, Howell is not ready to declare the Indians' defense as state championship-ready, especially not after the heartbreaking losses the last two seasons in the Class 6A state title games.
"With that being said, we still don't think we have reached our peak defensively, believe it or not. We truly believe that. We're still making mistakes that we have to rectify before we get into the playoffs, which is something we're really looking forward to," Howell said.
Mistakes like penalties still concern him.
"The last couple of weeks we've had too many penalties on the defensive side of the ball,"
Howell said. "That's just because of the aggressive mentality we try to take care of. We want our kids to fly around and hit hard and play fast and we try to get them worked up to play that way. "Sometimes they'll take it a little too far and take an extra hit here or there. This may cause some penalties."
However, Howell saw improvement against Tinley Park.
"The kids have accepted their role. I think tonight they cut back just a little bit. We only had one or two penalties, which is a plus compared to the past couple of games. We still have some things to work on there," he said.
Lemont's defense forced three turnovers against Tinley Park, including a fumble recovery and an interception by Forzley in the first quarter. Later, Wielgus recovered a fumble in the third quarter.
Lemont's Kyle Cyr to Josh Ferry passing combination resulted in touchdowns of 32 and 16 yards against Tinley Park. Both came in the first half sandwiched around a 4-yard scoring run by Danny Jackson, who tallied 128 yards on 19 carries.
In the second half, Kamberos scored on a 22-yard run, Jackson added a 13-yard score, and quarterback Michael Medwed ran it in for a 22-yard touchdown.
Kicker Josh Young converted five of six extra-point attempts.
Comment at homersun.com
Close
Community Login
You've successfully logged in to the Sun-Times Media Community, click the close button to return to browsing.
Facebook App
Font Size
Email
Bookmark
Black Text
Cell Phone Alerts