Crete slows Olympians, reaches .500

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Respect.

That was the word of the week from coach Jerry Verde for the Crete-Monee football players, who responded with a businesslike 30-6 SICA South victory over Rich Central Friday night in Olympia Fields.

After a heartbreaking 0-3 start, the Warriors have now won three straight decisions to get back to even for the season, entering next Friday's conference showdown against powerful Rich East in Crete.

"We've shown a lot of character getting back to .500," said standout senior defensive end Gary Young.

"We fixed the things we were doing wrong and executed our plays. For the past three games, we've gotten the job done."

On Rich Central's homecoming night, Crete-Monee (3-3, 2-0) had all of the fun at the football party. The Warriors' defense limited two Rich Central quarterbacks to 8-of-23 passing for 98 yards and frustrated the Olympians' vaunted running game (31 carries, 77 yards).

"It's all about tackling and execution," said Verde, who praised the defensive work of ends Young, David Wright, tackles Hakeem Hughes, Rodney Reed, Chris Buckley, linebackers James Jamison, Salvador Carvajal, and backs Dylan McElveen, Tre Jenkins, Greg Barksdale, Immanuel Jackson and Eddie Tate.

"In last week's game against Kankakee, we allowed 211 yards in the first half. This week we made the adjustments and paid attention to details."

Barksdale paid attention to making the big plays for the winners.

In the first quarter, the 6-foot-2, 198-pound junior intercepted a pass and rambled 42 yards to the end zone for a 6-0 lead.

With 7:36 left in the second quarter, Barksdale took advantage of great blocks by Young, Jenkins, Reed and Hughes to take a 70-yard punt return to paydirt for an 18-0 halftime lead.

That big play had followed one 90 seconds earlier when Young blocked a Rich Central punt attempt and Hughes recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown.

"We made the big plays," Barksdale said.

In the third quarter, Crete-Monee quarterback Armand Pierre (8-of-21, 95 yards), a third-stringer at the beginning of the season, continued to improve, hooking up with Cortez Scott for a 17-yard touchdown pass for a 24-0 lead at the 7:14 mark.

"Armand's getting more and more confidence each week," said Scott, who noted the outstanding line blocking delivered by Gary Nelson, Matt Finnin, Brad Wiater, DeAngelo Chambers and Cody Hock.

Crete-Monee's lead increased to 30-0 at 7:59 of the fourth quarter, thanks to Pierre's 12-yard scoring toss to Steve Trudo. When it was over, Crete-Monee was led in rushing by Julius Spicer (13 carries, 79 yards).

Rich Central (1-5, 0-2) avoided a shutout when Giorgo Bowers (12 carries, 64 yards) scored on a 1-yard run with 2:44 left to play.

About the only thing that went wrong for Crete-Monee was failing to convert a conversion after each of the five touchdowns.

"We've been doing a good job on kicking and two-point conversions in practice," Verde said. "But we didn't do a good job tonight. We'll work on that in practice. Those are important points you have to get in the big games."

And that "big game" will arrive when the Rich East Rockets come to town Friday night.

A year ago, Rich East edged Crete-Monee 20-15, thus creating an eventual tie for the conference title between the two teams.

You can bet the Crete-Monee word of the week will be "revenge."