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Geneva stuns highly-regarded Wheaton North
Mary Beth Nolan~For Sun-Times Media
Updated: September 3, 2011 12:23AM
When running back Parker Woodworth looked over the defense, he didn’t particularly like what he saw.
Wheaton North, primed to stop a critical fourth-and-1 from its own 45 and expecting a power run inside, bunched its entire defense in the middle.
So, Woodworth did the only smart thing. He busted the play outside for 38 yards and a first down at the Falcons 7-yard line. Quarterback Matt Williams scored on a rollout on the next play and Geneva went on to stun the highly-regarded Falcons, 33-24.
“They bunched the middle and they left the lane (outside) and we just took it and went with it,” Woodworth said. “I just took it where the hole was.”
It was a night of fireworks from the start to the final gun.
Wheaton North (1-1) scored on its first play from scrimmage, a 69-yard pass play from quarterback John Peltz (18-for-33, 304 yards) to Micah Penn (seven catches, 170 yards, two touchdowns) for a quick 7-0 lead, but Geneva (2-0) bounced right back with Woodworth (31 carries, 165 yards) scoring the first of his three touchdowns.
Then Geneva head coach Rob Wicinski rolled the dice twice and won both times. He called for an onside kick twice and Viking defensive back John Peterson recovered both. The first resulted in a touchdown and the second kept the Falcon offense on the sidelines.
“The special teams guys came to me, (they) watched a lot of tape and we’ve been practicing that quite a bit. They asked me and we did it,” Wicinski said. “I read an article where a guy, all he does in onside kick.”
“It gives us great enthusiasm to go out and put points on the board when we need ‘em,” Woodworth said.
Woodworth wasn’t the only Viking to have an outstanding night offensively. Williams went 11-for-23 for 215 yards and a touchdown, Tyler Hickey caught four passes for 125 yards and Ben Rogers pulled in four passes for 56 yards and a touchdown.
Then there was the offensive line of Jordan Hunter, Matt Roesch, Kevin Carlson, Jake Mills and Connor Chapman. They, along with lead blocker Ben Herrera, opened the lanes for Woodworth.
“We were really hoping for improvement from week one to week two. We were looking for them to come together and jell a little bit,” Wicinski said.
Woodworth would verify that the jelling has started.
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