Warriors running back comes up big

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:12PM

Quite a few ghosts were exorcised Friday night at Waubonsie Valley, as the Warriors ended a string of playoff appearances that resulted in first-round losses. It's been nine years since the Warriors last advanced to the second round in 2001, and they got there on the strength of an incredibly stout front seven on defense and the legs of an unlikely offensive hero - running back Austin Guido.

The Warriors run a balanced option attack, but on a night when the passing game was flat they turned to the 5-foot-8-inch, 180-pound Guido to carry the load. The sophomore was a workhorse, plowing through and dancing around the Crusaders' defense 22 times for 211 yards.

It was a career night for Guido, highlighted by a 96-yard TD run in the fourth quarter that was the exclamation point on the Warriors' 33-7 victory.

"We just kept pounding. The ‘O-line' was doing great and we just kept running down their throat," Guido said. "The pass wasn't working too good so we just kept running our basic running plays and good things happened from there."

Guido's consistent ability to get positive yardage allowed the Warriors to dictate the pace of the game on the ground. Quarterback Tommy Kolzow rushed 15 times for 57 yards as well.

The ability of the Warriors to chew up the clock allowed its defense to attack the Crusaders' offense, which was one-dimensional the entire night. Brother Rice had hoped starting QB Pat Parrilli would suit up for the first time since breaking his left wrist in Week 5, but he did not, turning the Crusaders into a run-only team.

This allowed Waubonsie to just tee off, and did it ever.

"We came out with what our coaches preach," Warriors linebacker Devon Morgan said. "We came out with tenacity, we came out with a chip on our shoulder and we came out ready to just shut ‘em down."

The aggressiveness not only resulted in three Crusaders' turnovers and seven punts, but seven false start or illegal shift penalties that killed many a drive before they even started. After Brother Rice took three plays to score the game's first points on a Billy McGivern 1-yard run, the Warriors' defense not only slammed the door and threw away the key - they then moved to another area code.

After Martez Walker peeled off a 57-yard run on a reverse to set up McGivern's TD, the Warriors allowed only two first downs and 17 yards of total offense the rest of the first half while forcing one turnover and four punts.

"They're not real big but they're quick though getting upfield," Crusaders coach Steve Nye said. "Offensively we're pretty limited with what we can do right now."

In all, Brother Rice was held to 144 yards of offense for the game, 142 by way of the rush. Martez Walker led the team with 77 yards while JaRon Hill contributed 37 and Andrew Walker added 36.

"We did know we could go after them," Morgan said. "(Walker and Walker) are great running backs but we were ready for it, so we were able to go get it."

After a tough first half, the turning point came right out of the break when Eric Josupait took the second half kickoff 87 yards for a score to make it 14-7. That started a run of 26 unanswered points by the Warriors, which included a field goal by Matt Girardot and a safety by Morgan. Brother Rice on the other hand, just kept hurting itself with penalties and poorly executed plays.

"The biggest disappointment was how they responded to adversity," Nye said. "We just don't get it done. I don't know if it's a factor us being so young and not have the leadership to that, to step up and everything. We just didn't do it."

Waubonsie now travels to Homewood-Flossmoor in the second round next Friday.

"I think we definitely got the monkey off the back," Morgan said smiling as he turned to look at the scoreboard.

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