Blackhawks overcome slew of penalties

Updated: October 22, 2011 12:10AM

Very seldom does a team see the yellow flag thrown its way so often, yet come out on top.

West Aurora overcame itself as much as visiting Glenbard East in the season finale for both teams. The Blackhawks got a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, then held on for a 17-14 DuPage Valley Conference triumph, winning their final two games.

“We had to have more yards in penalties than in total offense, which was ridiculous,” said Blackhawks coach Nate Eimer, finishing up his first season at the helm. “But we battled back from some first-and-longs and second-and-longs. I’m proud of them for not quitting, especially since we had a lot of guys playing out of position.”

Eimer may have exaggerated the comparison between penalties and offensive production, since his team did amass 328 yards of total offense. But the penalties were numerous: 18 flags totaling 170 yards. One touchdown was called back by a penalty, and West earned its first touchdown despite four penalties of 35 yards on the drive.

Still, the Blackhawk defense kept the team in the hunt, holding the Rams to 36 yards on 26 carries and forcing quarterback Joe Kotch to run for his life a number of times. Linebacker Brandon Warren completed a stellar three-year varsity career by sacking Kotch on fourth down during the final chance Glenbard East had a reasonable chance to score.

“If I could play another year here, I would — who wouldn’t want to play football?” said Warren, who also had a safety early in the game. “This wasn’t the best way to end the season (missing the postseason), but we did a lot of things that we had fun doing.”

West Aurora (4-5, 2-5 DVC) got a glimpse of its quarterbacking future in Quintez Jones. The sophomore split time with starter Curtis Townsend and made the play of the game early in the fourth quarter.

From the Blackhawk 30, Jones found wideout Anthony Oros behind the Ram secondary and hit him 30 yards downfield. Oros had nothing but green in front of him, with the 70-yard scoring strike giving West Aurora a 17-14 lead with 9:54 left.

Jones, fleet afoot with 44 yards on 11 carries, completed two passes on the night. His other connection also put points on the board, a 34-yard touchdown pass to Cole Childs midway through the second quarter.

“Quintez was great tonight,” Eimer said. “He’s been struggling in practice the last few weeks, but he stepped up tonight.”

Glenbard East sustained very little offense against the Blackhawks. But two passes from Kotch to Mike Fahey on the same fade pass down the right sideline (for 24 and 31 yards) had the Rams (1-8, 0-7 DVC) up 14-10 at halftime.

Booker Ross didn’t get into the end zone, but he did a lot of hard running for West Aurora. The 5-foot-11 junior gained 102 yards on 24 carries, including some tough yardage when his team was running down the clock.

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