Deerfield rolls past Maine West

Updated: October 1, 2011 12:37AM

Deerfield had five possessions in the first half and scored on four of them. Senior quarterback Bradley Holoway ran for two touchdowns and passed for another and senior RB Tyler Vajdic added two touchdowns on the ground as well as Deerfield routed Maine West 49-7 at Warrior Stadium.

“We were running our option very well tonight and we were able to give them all sorts of issues,” said Steve Winiecki, Deerfield’s head coach. “Our offensive line did a great job with their blocks. We hang our hat on running the ball and we did that well tonight.”

On its first possession starting from their own 34-yard-line, it took only four plays for Deerfield to punch in the first score of the game highlighted by Holoway’ 36 yard cutback keeper into the end zone. Following a second Maine West punt on a three and out, Deerfield again got the ball and used a steady diet of runs by Vadjic, and senior running back Marc Pagano to get the ball all the way down to the Maine West 2 where Vadjic punched it in. Another score off a blocked punt by junior WR Jacob Balder and another short running TD by Holoway and before Maine West knew it, the first quarter was over and the score was 21-0. Deerfield was held to only one score in the second quarter off a Vadjic run and at half, Maine West was down 28-0.

“I was motivated a lot to do better than these last two games so I haven’t really shown what I can do yet,” Holloway said. “I was trying to win and I was running the ball hard and wasn’t going to be stopped. We have a lot of balance on this team but we haven’t shown our full potential and in the weeks to come, we plan on continuing to score points and continuing to win.”

Maine West did have their chances however, playing its first game without their head coach Chris Hare, who was missed the game following his second back surgery in 6 months. Interim coach Russ Swenson pounded the ball running an option-style offense with fullback John Manicke and quarterback Jake Korbecki. It was penalties though that ultimately did Maine West in as three touchdowns had to be called back.

Following another Deerfield touchdown to start the second half on a 14-yard run by senior fullback Jeremy Kritt, Maine West finally got on the scoreboard with 2:09 left in the third quarter following a punt return by defensive back Raul Anaya that put the ball at the Deerfield 15. Five plays later, Korbecki pounded the ball in on a QB sneak and the lead was cut to 35-7. Deerfield added two more touchdowns off a Holoway pass to senior Ryan Adkins and a defensive fumble recovery by junior cornerback Brett Freedberg to cap off the scoring.

“Of course Coach Hare wanted to be here, this is the first game he has ever missed. I told the kids after the game that I thought they played hard and we had opportunities,” Swenson said following the game. “If we finish those plays, we might have had a different outcome. They did the things I asked them to do and that’s all you can ask as a coach.”

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