Week 3 Memorable Games

2015 - Peotone vs. Coal City - definitely the game that I spent the most time preparing for in my entire career. We were coming off of a 13-6 loss in week 2 and our offense was struggling to find its groove. In the previous week we lost a starting OLB and DE to season ending injuries, and lack of depth had me scrambling to fill those positions. Coal City, as always, was solid and I knew if we could take away the FB lead and Counter, we had a chance to win. We scored on the 2nd play from scrimmage and had a 7-6 lead at half. We were moving the ball well but the drive would always stall at about their 40, we would punt to force them to drive the length of the field. We were all bend but don’t break the entire 2nd half but in the 4th we broke and CC scored with about 2 minutes left on their last drive of the game. A very physical game and refs lost control at one point and they had 3 fans and 2 players ejected from the game. I will always remember our HC telling me “just one more stop” and me telling home to get the damn ball in the end zone.

2009 - Peotone @ Lisle - in the varsity game we were up at half but fell apart in 2nd half and ended up losing. We returned home after a long bus ride, unloaded the bus, and HC said frustrated said “I’m going to the bar, I don’t care if you come or not. I did not go. However, the following Monday, we have a freshman game and I am getting on the bus and the HC tells me and the Frosh HC “ to get a damn win.” In the middle of the 2nd quarter we lose a player to a broken collarbone, he has to go to the ER and his parents are not at the game. HC decides he will go to ER with the kid so I now have to coach solo. A steady dose of Blast,, Power, Counter, and Lefty’s favorite, Blast Action Comeback, along with milking the clock, we pulled off the first win in the program that season. Our varsity then goes on to win 5 of 6 games, most in dramatic fashion, to win conference.

I’m really enjoying the weekly game memories. Thanks to all of you.

2003 - Clifton Central at Salt Fork - We were 0-2 out of the Gate losing to eventual 2A State Champ Iroquois West week 1 in a blowout and then Princeton in week 2.  We were struggling right up until the last possession of the 1st half to Salt Fork.  We were an I-Formation offense but we just were not able to move guys up front and open up holes.  So we start going 4 and 5 wide the last possession of the 1st half and things start to click and we never looked back.  We stayed in the spread the rest of that year, our lineman operated out of 2 point stances the entire rest of the year and for whatever reason it worked for them and we won 6 of 7 to end the year and get into the playoffs where we Knocked off the #2 team in the State in the first round but ill share that story for Week 10 memories.  Great gritty group of seniors that year who put it all together a little more each week.

2014 - Monticello at Clifton Central - Monticello had a pretty good  offense that year they won a 58-55 shootout against Tolono the week after playing us.  We managed to get a few stops in the first half when we needed it and luckily only gave up 14 points but we needed to keep them off of the field.  We put our 250 Brick Shithouse DT who transfered back to us from Bishop Mac in the backfield at Fullback and ran ISO left and ISO right about 90% of the time the rest of the game.  He was drilling dudes.  Our TB set school record with 44 Carries and we controled the Clock in the 2nd half I think they had just 3 Possessions and we won 21-14.

Two come to mind instantly for Week 3, albeit one for not positive reasons:

2010-West Hancock at Pittsfield. We had played the Saukees tough the previous two years losing close games. We were very young in 2009 and while we were still primarily juniors in 2010 all of those kids had a year if not two of varsity experience under their belts. We hit this game 0-2 but had played two tough teams while Pittsfield had played two softies and were still only 1-1. We legitimately thought we were going to win this game...and instead they had us down 42-0 at halftime Very humbling experience. A year where we thought we had a decent team and we were 0-3 and ended up 1-7 (had one game lightening out and we never made it up due to travel being too far). Perhaps not coincidentally, the HC, me, and another assistant were looking for other coaching jobs the next season!

2005 Mt. Vernon vs. Triad. This game was the one that really taught me we would be pretty good in 2005, so basically the opposite of my last memory. We played Triad and both teams got the ground game going. The halftime score was 28-24, which constituted as a shootout for those days and we had almost 400 yards rushing by halftime. They had their triple option working, but also hit us with a couple deep passes for two of their scores. The scoring calmed down in the second half, but we held on for a 35-31 win.

Blast Action Comeback always made average QB's and WR's look better than they were...and we had several of those at Peotone in your time with me for sure.

2016...Mascoutah vs. Salem.  We got rained out due to lightning.  Had to come back the next night and play on Saturday...down 28-14 with about 6:00 minutes to play, scored and went for two, then scored with about :30 left to pull to within one 29-28.  Decided to go for 2 and got it to win 30-29.  One of the more memorable wins in my career...along with several that Dusty referenced in that crazy 2009 season; 0-3 to 5-4 conference champs.  

On a side note, that Sunday was 9/11...and the day I competed in my 1st Ironman triathlon in Madison, WI.  I had to be in Madison on Saturday morning to check my gear and bike in per the rules of the race; there was no race day check in...when I left the field Friday night, I had brought myself to realize it just wasn't meant to be with the game rescheduled for Saturday night.  I'd been training for 10+ months and it just wasn't going to happen.  As I sat on my front porch drinking a beer with my wife, my assistant coaches showed up with an RV that one of them owned...we piled into this RV and at 10 pm that Friday night headed up I-57 towards Madison...we got there about 4:30 am, slept for a few hours in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart; got up at around 8:00, went inside and brushed our teeth and freshened up in their bathroom, then went downtown to Menona Terrace to check my gear and bike in.  Left Madison about 10:30 am, back in Salem at 4:30 pm (my one assistants who'd stayed back ran a walk through that morning), kickoff at 6 pm, then left again to head back up to Madison at 9:30 with my wife and best friend driving me in our family van.  I think we pulled in to our hotel in Madison about 3:30ish...slept for a couple hours, then headed to the race site at 5:30 am. Finished the race in 13:49:11...the goofiest thing about that whole weekend, that I'll always remember, is after I finished all I wanted as a Bud Light...Anheiser Bush products tough to come by in downtown Madison...so we headed back to the hotel, and stopped at a gas station across the street; we walked in, I had my medal around my neck, and it was after 10:00 pm on a Sunday...no liquor sales, all caged up.  I tried to get this guy to open the cages, and he just wouldn't budge.  So we head back to the hotel, and my old man gave me 1...1 frickin' beer after doing an Ironman.  I bitch about that all the time, but I think I drank about half of it before I fell asleep...oh well.

Week 3 2007: Morris at Oswego

This is a game that will forever be in my memory because our season changed in this game. Literally on one play.

We were 0-2 coming in after dropping game 1 to Pontiac (as discussed in the week 1 thread) and getting thrashed by JCA (who would go on to win the 6A title in 2007) 51-13 in week 2.

In week 3, we head to Oswego, and we knew we'd have our hands full. We get behind early and although we stayed in striking distance, we could never take the lead in the game. It just felt like the football gods were pissed at us. Couldn't get out of our own way, couldn't catch a break. With less than 2 minutes remaining we are down by 5, Oswego has a chance to kick a field goal to seal the game... and they had a great kicker. Instead, they go for it on 4th and short on our 20 and don't convert.

Three plays later, we are now facing 3rd & long. Coach Dergo calls a Dig route to our left. The pass is completed, our receiver spins to the outside and takes it 78 yards to the house and we suddenly have the lead with just over a minute to go. We convert the 2 point conversion to make it a 3 point lead. We kick off, they duff the catch and get pinned down inside their 10. We then get a pick-six to seal the deal and another 2 point conversion to win 30-19.

Our kids (and coaches) just relaxed after that. It was a huge weight lifted from our shoulders and as a team, we jelled & got on a roll. We wouldn't lose again that season until the 5A championship against Metamora.

Had to look these 2 up to make sure they were Week 3 as nothing really jumped out and grabbed me when I thought Week 3.

2001- Shelbyville @ Meridian. Meridian was bad, but we were worse. But what made this game memorable was the weird events surrounding it. Prior to leaving the school for the game, our starting OLB and Rb shows up to the bus with his shoes spray painted silver and acting abnormal for him (he was actually kind of friendly when he was normally just a complete rude asshole to everyone). In a season that was already super weird, we just worte off as another side note and left. Get to game time and he gets tackled near our sideline and instead of getting up like a normal human being, he kips up from his back to a full standing position. That wasn't normal either. Later in the 1st half they fumble and the same kid picks it up at the 40 and breaks free. At the 25 with no Hawks around him and 4 of our guys to escort him to the score, he just drops the ball and falls on it. We promptly fumble the next C/Qb exchange and go on to lose 26-6 (those 6 pts were 6 of the only 26 we'd score all year on our way to 0-9). At halftime, as our HC is talking this same kid stands up and proceeds to take off all his uniform down to his t-shirt and girdle and tell all of us staring at him that be quits. As i said, he was a dick so we kind of said good riddance.

As we're going out to the 2nd half I walk through the gate to the field and her comes that kid running by me in full uniform to go join warm ups. I asked the HC WTF was going on. He shrugged. Kid played in the 2nd half with no issues and went back to normal afterwards. I have always wondered what he was high on that wore off at halftime.

I would later ask the HC a few years later why we didn't kick that kid and another a-hole we had on that team off. He said "they've got little brothers who are really talented and aren't as big of a-holes and I figured if we kicked them off, they might not play. We weren't going to win anything that year anyway." And both of those kids' brothers ended up starting on our semifinal team in 04 as Jrs.

2012- CGB @ Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond (ALAH) @ Atwood Hammond- ALAH was the polar opposite of us. Shotgun, threw a lot, fast, pretty. We generally beat you into submission. Leading up to the game a newspaper guy asked me to describe the difference in philosophy. I said Dale (Schurring- ALAH's coach) was a basketball guy and like to play a game of precise basketball on grass. I was a wrestling guy who wanted to turn it into a brawl. All week long we had been told we were going to get run off the field and I and the team were itching for a fight. I told the kids Thursday night that it would be really hard to run fast when you can't walk anymore. Meaning that we needed to physically beat them to the point they just couldn't move.

We pull in the parking lot and I kid you not, the bus door opens at precisely the same time the heavens do. We sit in our locker room and their gym (we had 50 kids that year) and wait. Eventually the lightning slows down and we go out to warm up. As we're warming up, the refs show up and tell us to get back inside (this was the first year of the whole if you see a flash you stay off the field stuff). We're still waiting around 8-830. Head ref comes up and asks if we'd come back Saturday. I said no. We had kids that couldn't come back Saturday (I think Bement had a band thing or something) and I knew that mostly Dale just wanted a dry track to be fast(I mean, looking at radar, the storm was SE of Charleston by this point). I tell the guy as he's walking away to not let Dale weasel his way out of an ass beating (I was pretty irritable by this point). I get summoned to a final decision meeting and this ref has his arm around Dale. I later find out they're good friends from way back.

We played. Needless to say we didn't get many calls. We won however 28-7. Nothing memorable really happened during the game other than they continually blitzed our A Gaps to take away our Iso and inside game. They were very successful early on in frustrating us and this sort of wrote the book on how to defend against us in the LOVC for the next few years as we started to see it out of everyone.

Side note- Monday afternoon our superintendent gets a bill from Atwood Hammond HS for a complete reconditioning of their gym floor. During one of the rain delays our Qb and snappers had been warming up with cleats on in the gym (they had a tarp on the floor already because of a dance the next day) while the rest of the team sat in the stands. Our super asked me my we weren't in the locker room. I said i had asked the same thing when I came in from meeting the refs. One of my assistants says "You gotta see this" and takes me into the locker room. When we get in, in the center of the room is a waterfall of water leaking through the ceiling and pouring out a light fixture.

I don't believe we gave them any money.

I should also say about the ALAH game- when asked about what slowed down their offense that night, Dale would respond by saying there was a lot of "humidity" on the ball. I have no idea WTF that means. It quickly became a recurring line among the staff for when we messed something up offensively during practice.

Example- overthrow a WR by 20yds one play? There was a lot of humidity on the ball.

I should also add this about that game- At least half the kids on the field had been team mates the year before. The dissolution of South Piatt had caused Bement to coop with us and AH to go to Arthur. There were assistants on both sides that had worked together on the same staff the year before. The kids were friendly, but at the same time, wanted to kick each other's asses.

And last side note- we won the last 2 games ever played at Atwood Hammond HS. Won in 11 vs South Piatt week 8 and against ALAH in week 3 in 12. I believe the football field is now a corn field. Kind of like my coaching career.

Head Idiot wrote:Had to look these 2 up to make sure they were Week 3 as nothing really jumped out and grabbed me when I thought Week 3.

2001- Shelbyville @ Meridian. Meridian was bad, but we were worse. But what made this game memorable was the weird events surrounding it. Prior to leaving the school for the game, our starting OLB and Rb shows up to the bus with his shoes spray painted silver and acting abnormal for him (he was actually kind of friendly when he was normally just a complete rude asshole to everyone). In a season that was already super weird, we just worte off as another side note and left. Get to game time and he gets tackled near our sideline and instead of getting up like a normal human being, he kips up from his back to a full standing position. That wasn't normal either. Later in the 1st half they fumble and the same kid picks it up at the 40 and breaks free. At the 25 with no Hawks around him and 4 of our guys to escort him to the score, he just drops the ball and falls on it. We promptly fumble the next C/Qb exchange and go on to lose 26-6 (those 6 pts were 6 of the only 26 we'd score all year on our way to 0-9). At halftime, as our HC is talking this same kid stands up and proceeds to take off all his uniform down to his t-shirt and girdle and tell all of us staring at him that be quits. As i said, he was a dick so we kind of said good riddance.

As we're going out to the 2nd half I walk through the gate to the field and her comes that kid running by me in full uniform to go join warm ups. I asked the HC WTF was going on. He shrugged. Kid played in the 2nd half with no issues and went back to normal afterwards. I have always wondered what he was high on that wore off at halftime.

I would later ask the HC a few years later why we didn't kick that kid and another a-hole we had on that team off. He said "they've got little brothers who are really talented and aren't as big of a-holes and I figured if we kicked them off, they might not play. We weren't going to win anything that year anyway." And both of those kids' brothers ended up starting on our semifinal team in 04 as Jrs.

Funny you mention these two teams, my Senior year at Monticello, there were the two best games I played that season.

Was 01 your Sr year?

2006--Mendon Unity vs. West Central. The Biggsville WC for anyone confused and I really should have thought about this one right away. This was my first year coaching the offensive line for Unity, so fortunately I wasn't around for nearly all of the streak but this game ended a 27 game losing streak as we beat WC 46-28. We were taking the field for our warm-up approximately 45 minutes before the game and most of their players were in the parking lot throwing a football around or standing by their vehicles with hoods open admiring each other's engines. Seriously...

We lined up in an unbalanced formation we didn't show in weeks 1 or 2 and ran a double dive out of it that our tailback broke for a long TD run, they turned it over on their very first play, and we ran the double dive again for a long gain and punched in another one a play or two later and sort of cruised after that.

But, and I've never really experienced anything like this again, our seniors had some talent but we finished 2-7. Instead of the win motivating them for more, they thought and acted like their job was basically done after ending the losing streak. Only other game we would win that year was against Athens, who if memory serves correct, was a first-year varsity program that year.

BTW, I'm enjoying these threads as well. I've actually already written into my planner which games I'm posting about next week!!

Head Idiot wrote:Was 01 your Sr year?

Yep. We were ok that year but missed playoffs.

dusty7 wrote:

Head Idiot wrote:Was 01 your Sr year?

Yep. We were ok that year but missed playoffs.  

Wasn't 02 their weird 5-4 but make a run to the semifinals year?

Yep, the RB was a stud and he carried that team on his shoulders. Defeated SJO on a FG and St. T on a dive play on 3rd and Long. Got rocked by DuQuoin. Honestly that team underachieved, solid athletes in every position but coaching was a bit of an issue.

2001 week three. Playing at Stillman Valley. They are good. Just won back to back titles and that team lost a close one to Hall in semis.

Start game and are getting drilled. Can’t get back to the LOS on offense. They are moving the ball all over the place...But they don’t score.

At the end of the first it goes into a long lightning delay. It was a nasty lightning storm. We have a fan that stays in the metal bleachers the whole time.

We have no idea if we will play again that night or have to come back next day. I tell refs/AD/Lalor we will stay all night to finish.

We completely chill out in the locker room. Pads off. Laying around. Coaches trying to decide what time to order pizza for post game party. Seeing if we have enough beer for it. Coaches young kids messing around in the locker room. Etc. We aren’t planning a win after that start.

We can see the Stillman team. They keep pads on. Coaches trying to keep kids players focused. Drawing up stuff on the board. Kind of like your supposed to.

The only real twitch of coaching we have during the break is to install a play in the hallway that we ran when I was in college and worked against slanting nose guards.

Anyway game resumes and we absolutely start owning LOS. Complete flip of the switch and win 19-6. We actually were pretty good that year but it was a stunning turn around in the game. We had a junior fullback named Guzman that ended up a top 10 career rusher at Augustana. He was able to run all over a really stout defense.

The funny part was after the game when everyone wanted to know what adjustments the coaches made to win the game...

center wrote:2001 week three. Playing at Stillman Valley. They are good. Just won back to back titles and that team lost a close one to Hall in semis.

Start game and are getting drilled. Can’t get back to the LOS on offense. They are moving the ball all over the place...But they don’t score.

At the end of the first it goes into a long lightning delay. It was a nasty lightning storm. We have a fan that stays in the metal bleachers the whole time.

We have no idea if we will play again that night or have to come back next day. I tell refs/AD/Lalor we will stay all night to finish.

We completely chill out in the locker room. Pads off. Laying around. Coaches trying to decide what time to order pizza for post game party. Seeing if we have enough beer for it. Coaches young kids messing around in the locker room. Etc. We aren’t planning a win after that start.

We can see the Stillman team. They keep pads on. Coaches trying to keep kids players focused. Drawing up stuff on the board. Kind of like your supposed to.

The only real twitch of coaching we have during the break is to install a play in the hallway that we ran when I was in college and worked against slanting nose guards.

Anyway game resumes and we absolutely start owning LOS. Complete flip of the switch and win 19-6. We actually were pretty good that year but it was a stunning turn around in the game. We had a junior fullback named Guzman that ended up a top 10 career rusher at Augustana. He was able to run all over a really stout defense.

The funny part was after the game when everyone wanted to know what adjustments the coaches made to win the game...

That's just great coaching.