Munster’s Strbjak plays through injury

Updated: September 19, 2011 10:03PM

Munster quarterback Mark Strbjak and his teammates weren’t going to be denied.

The thought of starting the season 1-4 was something coach Leroy Marsh’s Mustangs apparently couldn’t fathom.

Despite falling behind 12-0 early in the first quarter during Friday night’s non-conference game against previously unbeaten Morton, the Mustangs staged an unbelievable comeback from a 26-10 fourth-period deficit to stun the Governors, 30-26.

Strbjak turned in a gutsy and clutch performance in the second half to engineer the Mustangs’ victory, which wasn’t secure until the game’s final play.

Strbjak threw three touchdown passes in the second half, including a pair in the decisive fourth-quarter to Lukas Nossem, and also scored on a one-yard TD run. On Munster’s game-winning, 81-yard TD drive, Strbjak was seen holding his shoulder on several plays, but he still made sure his team reached the end zone.

After a frustrating first half — that ended with Strbjak failing to complete any of his six pass attempts — the senior threw another incompletion on his first pass attempt of the second half, before his accuracy really picked up.

Strbjak completed 10 of his final 15 passes for 233 yards with two interceptions. He also rushed for 110 yards.

“Our quarterback played really well for us in the second half,” Marsh said.

Woods-Curtis runs wild: Junior running back/linebacker Jesse Woods-Curtis has been starting on the Hammond football team since he was a freshman.

And he packs quite a ferocious punch whether he’s running up the gut with the football or attacking the running back or wide receiver attempting to gain yardage against his defense.

Friday’s 40-26 win against West Side was obviously a case in point.

Woods-Curtis rushed for a team-high 174 yards on 10 carries and scored a touchdown as he helped his team stay unbeaten at 5-0 this season. He was also on numerous tackles on a defense that limited West Side to just 106 yards in the second half as the Wildcats outscored West Side 28-6 in the second half.

“It feels great to be 5-0,” he said. “Hammond has a great history (winning state titles in 1960 and 1962) and I feel it’s the beginning of a new era here. We’re hoping our success brings some money to the school system and brings a positive to the school.”

Woods-Curtis said the coach has been a big reason for the team’s turnaround too. Hammond was 3-8 last season.

“He’s a great coach,” he said of first-year coach Eric Schreiber. “He knows football and I feel we can go all the way with him.”

DeSomer getting better: Andrean continued to throw some passes in the second half of its 48-0 victory against Hobart, part of the process of continuing to develop promising sophomore quarterback Matt DeSomer.

DeSomer completed 5-of-20 passes (4-of-13 in the first half) for 46 yards with one interception against the Brickies.

“His mentality is not like a sophomore,” 59ers coach Phil Mason said. “He sees everything, he’s smart. We had some drops. He’s going to continue to get better. Our passing game has to improve in all aspects — play-calling, executing, fundamentals.”

Spreading the wealth: Being the star running back at Lowell is much like being the mayor of any city. Everyone knows your name and expects leadership.

At least that’s how it has been over the last several years with standouts Brandon Grubbe and Cole Midgett spearheading a slew of postseason wins. But sometimes achieving the same results takes different measures.

Make that nine of them.

In their 45-21 romp over Highland, the Red Devils offense had nine players rushing the football.

While leading back Nick Hamilton (73 yards) contributed to a much lopsided 401-33 yards differential between the two clubs running totals, many others joined the parade. First-year varsity player George Fields had the highest total with 118 yards, including an 82-yard TD run.

“We want to run the ball and if that’s what it takes to run the ball — that’s what we’ve got to do,” Lowell coach Keith Kilmer said.

Oilers splitting carries too: These days, nearly every NFL team splits carries between two running backs to cut down on the physical pounding running backs take.

It may not be quite as prevalent at the high school ranks, but more and more teams are starting to feature two backs on offense, including Whiting, where senior Javi Guerra and freshman Ethan Young lead a powerful Oilers’ ground game.

“(Having two backs) really helps our offense a lot,” said Young, fresh off a 160-yard, four-TD performance against Bishop Noll. “I know that if I’m out, Javi will be the one that makes the play.”

“We’re both good running backs and we both run hard,” said Guerra, who added 69 yards and a TD. “I think we work well together. But Ethan’s just a freshman … it’s ridiculous how hard he runs.”

Enigmatic Indians: Which Portage team is it going to be? In their last two defeats, the Indians lost by a combined 104-7. That includes a 62-7 loss to Lake Central and Friday’s 42-0 loss to Crown Point. But sandwiched in between is a 17-16 win over Merrillville. And despite losing its first two games of the season, Portage (1-4) played tough against Mishawaka and St. Rita.

“I know we’re young and don’t have a lot of experience,” Indians coach Jeromy Flowers said. “But I still believe we’re better than this.

“I don’t know what the problem is. You always have to point the finger at the coach. I’ve got to figure something out. I thought we had it figured out last week (in the win against Merrillville).”

John O’Malley, Ryan Haskell, Michael Osipoff, Josh Lichtenfeld and Dave Melton contributed.

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