Plainfield South cruises to another win

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:28PM

The Plainfield South football team finally cracked a daily metropolitan newspaper's top 25 this week, checking in at and No. 21 in the Chicago Sun-Times.

But, rankings and ratings don't mean a hill of beans to the Cougars and coach Mike Briscoe.

"No offense, but I really don't care what the media says, to be honest," Briscoe said. "I only care what the kids and coaches think. I don't care about rankings. I told the kids I don't even look at the stats. I couldn't tell you what they say. The only stats I care about are wins and meeting our goals."

The numbers that do are 6 and 0.

That's the Cougars' record heading into the final three weeks of the season after beating Plainfield Central 59-20 Saturday afternoon during homecoming festivities at Central.

Planfield South (6-0, 4-0) is for first in the Southwest Prairie Conference with Plainfield North. The two square off during the final week of the regular season at North.

"It is a big step for these guys," Briscoe said. "The last couple of years, we were 5-4. It was heartbreaking, but it was our fault. We met a goal in qualifying for the state playoffs and we did it in six weeks. Not a lot of teams in the state can say that."

It's the first time Plainfield South has qualified for the state playoffs since 2006.

"It's a great accomplishment, but we still have to play hard," Plainfield South senior Sheldon Magee said. "We want to go 9-0, win the conference and win state."

Magee completed 6 of 10 passes for 243 yards and four touchdowns. Fellow quarterback Austin Howarth completed 7-of-14 passes for 165 yards and a pair of two touchdowns.

Alex Flores caught 4 passes for 191 yards and 3 touchdowns.

"They picked the wrong team for homecoming," Flores said. "We are 6-0, but we've played the easy teams in our conference. Our conference isn't built up as much as it has in the past. But, we've got some big games coming up."

South also welcomed back senior running back Dondre Adams, who missed the last three games with a knee injury. He had 7 carries for 128 yards and 3 touchdowns.

"Putting Dondre back in the mix was big for us," Briscoe said. "All of them know every position on offense. When you have athletes like we have on offense and can move them around and make things happen, we are going to be hard to beat."

John Magee caught a 72-yard touchdown pass from his brother, Sheldon, with 10:19 left in the fourth quarter. It made the score 59-14 and started a running clock, per state rules.

Sheldon Magee and Austin Howarth each threw touchdown passes to each other during the third quarter.

The second half started with a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Plainfield Central's Dominique Miller.

"What's left of the season is we have play good football, clean up things and take pride in what we do," Central coach JOhn Jackson said. "It's in their hands now. Their destiny is their destiny. It's entirely up to them at this point."

Brendan Zullo caught a touchdown pass from Tim Blake and Jordan Ellingwood ran for a score for Plainfield Central (0-6, 0-4).

"It's on their shoulders," Jackson said. "It's time we start putting a little responsibility on people. I'm judged basically watching a bunch of 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds run around with my check in their mouth every Friday night or Saturday afternoon. And, it was a beautiful day for a game."

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