Wheeler stays perfect, blanks Calumet

Calumet's Justin Perez is wrapped up by Wheelers' Tommy Wilk (4) and Riley Kenney (28).
(Charles Mitchell/For the Post-Tribune )

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

VALPARAISO -- This wasn't the high-flying glorified exhibition Wheeler is used to. It wasn't about eye-popping stats and gaudy scores, wasn't about getting the junior varsity some game action, wasn't about creating highlight reels for college recruiters.

This was better.

This was real football. Combat in the trenches. Tough runs, key blocks, big stops.

And this was important.

Because this is what it will be like from now on.

Wheeler's impressive 28-0 victory over a game Calumet squad on Friday night was about more than the first undefeated season in the program's short history, and about more than a second consecutive Greater South Shore Conference championship. It was about the Bearcats making a statement -- both to the region and to themselves. That they are for real. And that they can handle real competition, bigger opponents and four quarters of football.

"Calumet is bigger than us across the board, but our guys beared down and came up huge," said Wheeler coach Dan Klimczak, shivering rather violently after a postgame water-cooler shower. "That's what we need to do. North Judson is very big. If we're fortunate enough to get past them next week (in the sectional opener), Seeger's bigger than us. And depending on how it plays out, Rensselaer is very big, too. That's the brand of football we're going to see from now on."

And though they claimed they never had any doubt, now the Bearcats know for sure they can handle it. Because this might have been the most competitive 28-0 game possible. If not for Wheeler (9-0, 7-0) outmuscling bigger Calumet (7-2, 6-1) when it mattered most -- inside the 5-yard line -- things could have been a lot different.

Three times, Calumet got the ball inside the Wheeler 5-yard line. Three times, the Warriors were turned away.

Down 7-0 in the first quarter, Calumet had a first-and-goal from the 5. It turned into a fourth-and-goal from the 2, and with quarterback Nate Fowler temporarily sidelined with a freak injury, George Ezell was stuffed at the line of scrimmage before flipping it out of desperation to Darcell Ballentine, who was stuffed as well.

Down 14-0 in the second of the second quarter, Calumet had an 18-play drive that ended at halftime -- about an inch from the goal line. Fowler's pass on fourth-and-23 to Jeffrey Burley was ruled just short of a touchdown, though Calumet vehemently argued that he caught the ball in the end zone and was pushed back out as time expired.

Finally, down 21-0 in the fourth quarter, the Warriors had a first-and-goal at the 5 before they were pushed back by Wheeler's defense and by penalties, and a bad snap was recovered by Wheeler's Alex Vives, ending Calumet's last threat.

"At Nebraska, they have a saying that five or six plays decide a game," Calumet coach Ivan Zimmer said. "We were on the wrong end of all five."

Calumet moved the ball better than any team had against Wheeler all season. But the Bearcats -- undersized but not overwhelmed -- bent without breaking. They held Calumet's dynamic duo of George Ezell (21 carries, 33 yards) and Darcell Ballentine (14 carries, 70 yards) in check, and kept them out of the end zone when they did manage to get close.

"It comes down to a lot of heart, and a lot of our guys being tough," said Wheeler's two-way standout Clay Duarte. "We got some tough boys on that defensive line, and the linebackers, too. If you ask them to take on Brian Urlacher, they'd do it. It goes to show, we're not going to give up just because they're on the 1. We're going to keep flying downhill and try to stop them."

And as tough as the smaller Wheeler players were on defense, they were even tougher on offense when it counted most. The Bearcats got inside the Calumet 5 four times -- and scored each time.

Duarte plowed ahead for three 5-yard touchdown runs. And quarterback Mike DeSimone rammed in from 1 yard out with a little less than two minutes in the game to seal the scoring.

The numbers, by Wheeler's standards, were pedestrian at best. Duarte ran for a tough 80 yards on 20 carries. DeSimone was 10-of-19 for 182 yards passing. Wheeler's offense was kept off-balance by Calumet's tough defense and the Warriors offense, which kept the Bearcats scoring machine off the field for huge chunks of time -- something they're not at all used to.

It was a gritty, bruising performance from a team known for its speed and finesse.

And that's why it was easy to overlook the less-than-gaudy numbers. To shake off the 13 penalties. To look past the perilously close first half.

The Bearcats, again crowned champions, now feel tested, proven and ready for another week just like this one -- and hopefully, a whole bunch more.

"There's definitely a lot of room to improve -- there always is," Duarte said. "But I feel we made a little statement tonight. We're ready."

Contact Mark Lazerus at 648-3140 or mlazerus@post-trib.com