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Grayslake Central pursues winning tempo

A tweaked offense might not necessarily speed up the rebuild, but Grayslake Central will at least try to move at a faster pace when it has the football this season.

"I don't know how much we're going to huddle this year," quarterback Sam Lennartz said of an offensive unit that huddled all last season. "We're trying to keep the pace going. ... We're trying to keep defenses on their heels."

The Rams tried to run some no-huddle offense last year, but it yielded only moderate success.

"I think last year we were getting tired a lot," Lennartz said. "We're definitely more conditioned. We have some speed."

Grayslake Central's rebuilding process has been slow. Since head coach Nick Goshe's Rams went to the state playoffs in back-to-back years, winning a combined 13 games in 2010 and 2011, GC has won just seven games in five seasons, and that included four under current assistant Ben Ault in 2013.

Last season, the Rams' 25-15 win over Round Lake in Week 4 snapped a 22-game losing streak and gave Jason Schaal his first victory in three years as head coach. They dropped their final five games, however.

A more-veteran group this year has the Rams particularly hungry to taste victory.

"I think this is the most seniors we've had starting in a very long time," senior safety Parker Troy said. "We're all here to win. This is our last year, and we realize a lot of us aren't going to be able to do this ever again."

Lennartz (6-1, 170) gives the Rams experience at the most important position on the field. Last year, though the Rams scored just 133 points, Lennartz completed 95 passes, three shy of the single-season school record.

"Sam took big steps forward last year," Schaal said. "We challenged him again."

And Lennartz has responded.

"We're tweaking a couple of things - the way we're getting (plays) in, wanting to be a little quicker," Schaal said. "He's not only taken to it, but he's now holding everybody else accountable. He's not in the back talking about anything that's not football related, and he's helping all of the other kids. He's really doing a great job with that."

Wide receiver Peter Brewster (6-0, 175) had what Schaal called a "heck of a season" last year, and the senior returns to give Lennartz a trusty target. Young a year ago, the offensive line brings back seniors Robert Tyler Cinq-Mars (6-3, 220), Ethan Tran (5-9, 220) and Ethan Schoenborn (6-1, 220).

The Rams could go into their season opener at defending Class 5A state runner-up Vernon Hills with a "running back by committee," Schaal said. The group includes seniors Garrett Martin (6-0, 160) and Jayson Nardi (5-7, 150), who played in the program as a freshman but lived out of state the last two years.

"If Sam has the season he had last year and we can establish a little bit of a running game, I think we can do OK," Schaal said.

Few seniors started on defense last season, and the Rams yielded 364 points, most of any Northern Lake County Conference team. This year's returnees include linemen Austin Wagner (6-0, 230 junior), Sam Chandler (6-0, 205 senior) and Jimmy Hinkley (6-4, 232 junior), linebackers Andrew Dziura (5-11, 182 junior) and Joey Murphy (5-7, 155 junior), and defensive backs Troy (5-11, 145), Kirk Comerford (5-11, 170 senior), Zack Reese (5-11, 160 senior) and Brian Federico (5-8, 140 senior).

"We're older now," Troy said. "We're starting to put the pieces together, and getting a lot tougher and stronger."

It's all part of the rebuild.

  Quarterback Sam Lennartz stretches before throwing the ball during football practice at Grayslake Central. Gilbert R. Boucher II/gboucher@dailyherald.com
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