Football: Warriors knocked off stride

Jacquie Discipio is the third girls basketball coach in four years at Naperville North. Also the assistant athletic director, she's working to establish and achieve goals program-wide.
Corey R. Minkanic / For The Sun

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The newly revived Waubonsie Valley running game was in rough shape Friday night.

Chris Harris was on the sideline, his left shoe off and a bag of ice resting on his ankle. Harris had run for 158 yards a week earlier, but now early in the second quarter against Lake Park he'd run for only 27.

Adding to the frustration was that Harris, a senior who missed four games with a broken collarbone, seemed like he was just finding his stride against the Lancers, who led 7-0 late in the first quarter.

Harris picked up modest yardage on two carries before breaking what at first appeared to be a long touchdown run. But instead of a 43-yard score, Harris was tripped up by defensive back Nick Wiley after a 13-yard gain.

It was Harris' final carry of the night. The drive did end with a touchdown run, but it was from the 1-yard line. And it was defensive tackle Sherrod Stancil who carried it across.

By the end of game, the Warriors had mustered only 28 yards rushing, despite earning a big 26-7 victory and improving to 3-3 overall after an 0-3 start.

So how concerned is coach Paul Murphy about his running game, which has accumulated only 368 yards this season?

"It's a concern if they can shut down our passing with only five or six players in the box," Murphy said. "But if they can't do that, we're going to keep throwing."

In other words, the Warriors are just taking what defenses give them. On Friday, the Lancers loaded up for the running attack, leaving the perimeter open for quarterback Tyler Castro to find his receivers for short passes that sometimes turned into large gains. One of those was a bubble screen to Scott Kuehn, who caught the ball behind the line of scrimmage and sprinted 37 yards for a touchdown to put Waubonsie ahead for good late in the third quarter.

"It becomes a chess match," Murphy said. "You have to win the chess match or you're not going to move the ball."

That chess match has also been happening on the Warriors' offensive line. Or maybe musical chairs is the more appropriate metaphor.

"We have an entirely new left side of our offensive line since we started our winning streak," Murphy said. "Those guys have done a tremendous job."

Injuries forced players to out of position during the first three games of the season. Since then, the shuffling has moved Brett Hanson from left guard to center. Tom Homan moved from defense to left guard. And left tackle Anthony Wolf returned in Week 4 from a separated shoulder.

While the strong play of the line didn't translate into yardage on the ground, the Warriors still believe in their running game. They had more running plays called Friday, but Castro has the leeway to call audibles.

"He was able to check out of running plays and check down to quick slants or hot routes that he knew would be open," Wolf said.

Murphy said juniors Tre Clark and Ken Clay are still getting used to the nuances of the game, thus they missed some of the openings created by the line Friday night. They'll carry the running load again Friday at Bloom Township because Harris is expected to be out with a sprained ankle. He could be ready for Waubonsie's Week 8 matchup against South Elgin.

Only three weeks removed from their stumbling start, the Warriors are eyeing a strong finish in the final third of their schedule.

"To come out and beat our rival team and have that be our first win, that really turned everything around for us," Kuehn said, referring to Waubonsie's 28-26 victory over Neuqua Valley, its District 204 sister school. "Hopefully, we can run the rest of our schedule."

And they'll look to do it any way opponents will let them.