Sandwich doesn’t fall for Plano’s ruse

Updated: May 9, 2012 9:53AM

No sale, said Sandwich players.

The gamesmanship employed by Plano coach Jim Green before the start of Friday’s rivalry game at Sandwich was pretty entertaining, but no one on the home side of the field was buying it.

Reaper senior standout Joseph Jones, who had missed the previous two games after breaking a bone in his hand vs. Coal City, watched the opening half of the sophomore game from the sideline dressed in basketball shorts and team jersey with his arm in a sling.

When the varsity players went onto the field at halftime of the prelude to stretch and throw the ball around a bit, the Northwestern-bound Jones was out there but simply milled about and talked with teammates.

“We laughed,” Sandwich fullback Spencer Carlson said. “I don’t know if you’re familiar with Facebook, but a lot of us have him as a friend and he was posting all week, ‘Oh, I’m not playing. I’m not playing.’

“He’s a competitor, just like we are. We knew he was playing all the time.”

Sure enough, when the teams returned to the field for pregame warmups, there was Jones — in uniform — sans sling.

And after Jose Martinez returned the opening kickoff to the Reaper 25-yard-line, Jones took a handoff from quarterback Trevor Rea on the first play from scrimmage and went off left tackle for a 13-yard gain. Two plays later, he swept the right side and gained 17 more.

“They knew it,” Green conceded. “I said it after the game last week that was the plan, to get him ready for this one.”

It was tougher sledding for Jones after those first two carries, though. While he finished with a team-high 81 yards rushing on 16 carries, he had just one other run for double-digit yardage, a 22-yard scamper in the third quarter that featured a TD-saving tackle by Sandwich linebacker Seth McDonald.

Jones also took a majority of the snaps on defense at his safety spot.

“He would admit he was a little sluggish tonight and it showed that he hadn’t played for a couple of weeks,” Green said. “He’s got that out of the way and, hopefully, he’ll come out and show the next couple weeks what he’s made of and get us to where we need to be, which is to get better in the next two weeks.”

Carlson, who led all rushers with 140 yards on 24 carries in the Indians’ 23-22 win, said, “I’m glad (Jones) played, because now they’re not gonna make excuses.”

Ramblers eye home playoff game

The last time Mooseheart hosted a playoff game was back in 1996, a first-round loss to Lexington after a 9-0 regular season.

Fast forward to 2011. The Red Ramblers have a revamped stadium and beautiful new field turf and they’re ready to play host to a postseason game yet again.

Saturday’s 23-14 win over CICS/Longwood moved Mooseheart to 7-0 with two games to play. The win was the Red Ramblers’ first against a winning team this season. Games against potential playoff teams Hope and North Shore Country Day loom in the final two weeks.

“We’re going to do everything we can to get that home playoff spot,” coach Gary Urwiler said. “The fans have been so supportive and encouraging. We have a nice facility for people and we want to showcase it for people as well.”

It would be the team’s fourth playoff berth in the past six seasons.

“We’re definitely not complacent with where we are right now,” Mooseheart junior quarterback Jonathan Hart said. “We have to keep moving forward. Our goal is to get a home playoff game, and that’s what we’re working toward.”

Preparation pays off

For several weeks, Aurora Christian head coach Don Beebe had implored his team to prepare for each opponent as if they were facing a state powerhouse, to ready themselves in that fashion regardless of what the stats or the film said. In those weeks, the team battered around Chicago Christian, Guerin and Walther Lutheran — but also received a hammering at the hands of Montini Catholic.

That loss was the clarion call Beebe had hoped it would be, as several Eagles players said that by Monday of last week, they had already studied up on Immaculate Conception and knew the game plan forward and backward.

“This week has been unmatched,” Eagles linebacker/tight end Mitch Holtz said. “We knew we were the better team. They run a similar defense, so even last week we had our playbooks read so guys knew everything. Coming in Monday we knew exactly what we were doing offensively. This week was unmatched since (Week 1 against) Stillman (Valley).”

Aurora Christian took control of the Suburban Christian Conference Gold race with a 35-28 victory, and now can focus on winning the last two games of the season and earning a top seed in Class 3A. To do so will be important, as the Knights are also a highly-regarded 3A team.

“These guys have really spent a lot more time (studying),” Beebe said. “What happens is you look at the schedule, and even as a college kid and as a professional, you do it, and you see ‘We should win this’ and you get in that mode of relaxation. And when that happens three weeks in a row it starts to become a habit. That was hard. I was doing better coaching then than I had to do (this week) because they were glued in. The mental errors were way down. It was Stillman all over again. And I do admit, it was even better. These kids were well prepared.”

And for the second time this year, the Eagles were given the positive reinforcement that if they do prepare, they can come out on top in the end.

“Yeah, there’s no doubt,” Holtz said. “We have so much confidence in ourselves. We know if we play our game and prepare the way we prepare, we’re going to win the state title. That’s all there is to it.”

Beebe likely done
for season

Number 82 was a welcome sight for Aurora Christian fans during warmups Friday night, as junior receiver Chad Beebe was set to make his season debut after breaking his collarbone in the preseason.

He was targeted on the Eagles’ first play from scrimmage and eventually caught one pass for 20 yards, but it proved disastrous. Beebe’s left shoulder was driven into the ground and he was rolled over by an Immaculate Conception defender, the same side in which he had broken the collarbone. He popped up, and stayed in the game for three more plays.

The pain became too much however, and he eventually sought out the trainer and was told he likely broke that same collarbone.

His father, Eagles head coach Don Beebe, also said his son re-injured the same foot he broke last season.

Jim Owczarski and Paul Johnson contributed to this report.

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