Whitelaw, Kirk provide record efforts for Devils

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

Even before the Hinsdale Central football team played Maine South for the Class 8A state championship Saturday, junior quarterback John Whitelaw passed and ran into the program's record books.

Whitelaw set single-season school records for passing yards (2,246) and total offense (3,559) during the Red Devils' 24-21 semifinal victory over Mount Carmel after previously breaking marks for pass completions (143) and passing attempts (256).

"With the kind of (spread) offense we're running, I should have that many yards," Whitelaw said. "I got a lot of opportunities to run and throw so anything less than that would be kind of disappointing."

On Saturday, junior Alex Kirk set a school playoff-game record and tied the single-game school record with nine catches.

"I was just focused on trying to get back in the game so I wasn't even keeping track," Kirk said. "We've been working on throwing against that type of defense all week. We knew stuff was going to open up. We made some plays, but, unfortunately, not enough."

Kirk had a team-high 41 catches (2 shy of the school record) this season for 636 yards and eight touchdowns.

The past three weeks, Hinsdale Central held two practices a week at none other than huge rival Lyons Township's football field. The additional experience on artificial turf surface helped the Red Devils Saturday with the similar surface at the University of Illinois' Memorial Stadium.

"That was very generous on their behalf," senior Sean O'Grady said of LT. "That was critical. Our (grass) field wasn't in great shape and we got in some good practices on their turf."

"The first couple of days it was really weird (being at LT), but once we got used to it, everybody liked it," senior Eric Alexander added.

Besides a Hinsdale Central football team reaching the state final for the first time, it was the first trip for seven of the eight varsity coaches.

Third-year head coach Mike DiMatteo previously was head coach at Lake Zurich, which won last year's Class 7A state title. Also making their first trips were assistants Gary Gamen, Tom Dorrance, John Melone, Todd Koehler, Jamie Pass and Brian Griffin. Nick Gebhart was an assistant for five of Driscoll's state champions from 2001-05.

"It's a great wave and hopefully something that will really propel the program to perpetual success. Instead of hoping to get a second win in the playoffs, we'll be expecting to get to the semifinal," DiMatteo said.

"We're hoping that it's going to turn us into a more congruent program. Our (Falcons) youth program will see what we're doing and jump on that program so they're running the same offense and defense, like the Maine South kids have done. That also will breed future success."