West Side honors fallen teammate

Updated: September 24, 2011 9:24PM

GARY — You could tell when you first walked into West Side’s football stadium that this would not be a normal day on the gridiron.

There, painted in orange at midfield was a large “40”, in honor of fallen Cougars nose guard Edwin Parker, who just three days earlier was gunned down while walking home from school. Sitting behind the south goalposts were members of his family.

“He had been here for only three weeks, but he came to practice and was knocking guys around all over the field and we said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get this kid on the field ASAP,” West Side coach Jason Johnson said. “He became our starting nose guard and played well last week. He wasn’t causing any problems and he was doing well academically. He was a good kid and fit right in.”

But Saturday’s show had to go on and in this case, it was a matchup with one of the top teams in Ohio. And it didn’t take long for Thurgood Marshall (from Dayton) to show how good a team it is in a 69-26 win over West Side.

“You have to be compassionate but you knew a pretty good football team was coming here,” Johnson said. “Surprisingly, the kids were in tune Thursday and I expected them not to be. I thought they would lose focus and I think that’s what happened in the first half.”

Sure enough, after an emotional pregame ceremony honoring Parker, Marshall’s Tavonn Crisp returned the opening kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown, beginning a run of six straight possessions on which Marshall scored. Marshall (5-1) eventually took a 42-0 halftime lead with all the damage done by its running game, which amassed 262 of its 390 yards in the first half.

“It was tough focusing on football this week,” said Cougars receiver Regan Atkins-Frazier. “We came out real sluggish, maybe it was because we were still caught up in emotion, but we came out more focused in the second half.”

The combination of Atkins-Frazier and quarterback Previon Williams helped the Cougars (1-5) win the second half, connecting on three touchdown passes, including one on the Cougars’ first possesion of the second half after a 72-yard kick return by Lonnie Johnson. Williams hit Atkins-Frazier with a 9-yard scoring pass to get the Cougars on the scoreboard, then found him on touchdown passes of 10 and 37 yards later in the half. Williams threw a fourth touchdown pass, finding Curtis Lee from 9 yards out in the third quarter.

“I thought we did great in the second half,” Johnson said. “I said to them that the man in front of you may be better, but you still have to fight. I told them I wanted to win the second half and we did. I told the kids after the game that I was proud of how they played in the second half.”

After the game, both teams huddled at midfield for prayer, which is nothing new for West Side football. It’s a postgame ritual for the Cougars that dates back to the Eugene Johnson days. But this one was a little more emotional, with players from both teams encircling the orange “40” at midfield.

“This was hard because we weren’t expecting this,” Atkins-Frazier said. “He came in from Georgia and first day of practice he was putting some of our O-linemen into the backfield. He made himself part of the team and we had fun together. So this week was challenging.”

Roosevelt 14, Lew Wallace 6: With his “stop on a dime and change directions” running style and No. 20 jersey, Roosevelt running back Jerry Ruiz might remind you of Barry Sanders.

“I don’t know about that, all I do is try and score,” Ruiz said.

And by doing that again Friday night, not to mention breaking off a Sanders-type run to keep the ball away from Wallace on Saturday, Ruiz helped the Panthers pick up their first Nothwestern Conference win since 2009 with a 14-6 win over Wallace. It was the continuation of a Friday night game that was postponed because of lightning and rain. The final 8:08 of the game was played Saturday, with Roosevelt basically playing keep-away from Wallace.

“This is not just a conference rivalry but a neighboorhood one as well,” said Ruiz who has ably replaced the injured Johnnie Frazier. “We have bragging rights now.”

Wallace coach Al Williams wasn’t pleased with the Hornets’ inability to take care of the football.

“We played terrible. too many turnovers and too many mistakes,” Williams said.

“We didn’t play. We didn’t play.”

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