West Aurora battles but can't topple Oswego East
Oswego East drew up a play during halftime of Friday's Southwest Prairie Conference game against West Aurora.
The Wolves didn't come out and give it a try right away, but when they did give it a go, it broke up a tight game, as Oswego East prevailed 21-3.
"We have been running a concept similar to that we had game planned coming in," Wolves coach Tyson LeBlanc said. "It was the running back to the flat but we decided that we were going to have him turn up and get into a foot race with that inside linebacker."
Junior Christian Martyn won that foot race after hauling in a pass from Tre Jones and taking it into the end zone for a 31-yard score with 6:25 remaining to complete the scoring.
"It's always been a dream of mine to be under these lights, so it was a special moment for me for sure," Martyn said. "We saw their corners and safeties were beat on it, so we tagged that and ran it. I just stuck my hands out and grabbed it and ran for a touchdown."
Oswego East (4-1, 1-0) held onto a 7-3 lead until Jones scored on a 5-yard run with 9:37 left in the game.
Jones had first put the Wolves on the board with an 88-yard touchdown run on their first possession after West Aurora (1-4, 0-1) opened the game with a lengthy drive that lasted over nine minutes but ended with a zero on the scoreboard.
"It's been our Achilles' heel all year," Blackhawks coach Nate Eimer said. "We get inside the red zone and there was a bad break (penalty) and then we bounced back and we got down there. It's hard right now. The kids have done everything right, working their tails off and are just not getting the results and that's hard for the kids, but I'm proud. They battled against a good football team."
The Wolves made that inability to put points on the board sting even more when Jones broke free to make it 7-0 with 2:11 left in the first quarter.
"They had the ball basically the whole first quarter and we kind of knew what we were going to do going into the game," Jones said. "We got the look that we wanted and luckily we made a big play in a two-play drive."
The Blackhawks managed to get a 20-yard field goal from Casey Roney with 4:28 left in the third quarter after penalties crushed the drive, including nullifying a completed pass to the 1-yard line.
"Historically we've had a pretty good defense here," Jones said. "As a quarterback I'm in a little different situation where I want to make it as a seamless as possible, where they can catch the ball and go and keep our defense out of a short field. At the end of the day they're going to play hard for us and I appreciate those guys on the defensive end."
Turnovers once again plagued the Wolves, but they proved capable of overcoming their mistakes again, treating the large Homecoming crowd to the team's third straight win.
"We have a coaching staff now that's been together for a few years and we have some guys who are smart football coaches," LeBlanc said. "They're capable of figuring out some things and adjustments we need to make at halftime. One adjustment we need to make is holding onto the football."