My favorite call: Bold 2-point call in 1st coaching gig at Fieldcrest stands out for DeKalb’s Derek Schneeman

Fans have their favorite plays of all time, but what about coaches? Do they have a favorite call they’ve ever made? The Daily Chronicle asked each of the five head football coaches in its area about the favorite call of their careers.

In this installment, current DeKalb coach Derek Schneeman talks about a play in his first year as a head coach in 2014 with Fieldcrest that led to a playoff win against Momence.

Derek Schneeman watched as Momence tried everything to stop the Fieldcrest running game when the teams met in the second round of the 2014 Class 2A playoffs.

So Schneeman used that to his advantage, dialing up a two-point conversion play to exploit the Momence defense and give the Knights a 22-21 win.

“I look back, and that’s the one that’s the most consequential,” Schneeman said on what made the play stand out almost 11 years later. “It ended pretty positive in our favor.”

Schneeman was in the first of what would be six years as the head coach with the Knights before coming to DeKalb as the offensive coordinator in the COVID-shortened spring 2021 season. He took over as the head coach of the Barbs in 2022.

The Knights were undefeated heading into the game and would eventually make a run to the semifinals that year. They were down 21-14 after Momence forced a turnover and scored. But Fieldcrest scored on a 4th-and-26 Hail Mary to tie the game with 1:26 left.

Schneeman went for the win playing at home. The playcall looked like a halfback toss, with quarterback Drew Barth getting the ball to Grant Jochums on a fairly traditional-looking play.

But once the defensive back bit on the run, Jochums lobbed the ball to Jake Griffin in the back of the end zone. Two-point conversion good. Fieldcrest held on, beat Clifton Central the following week and fell 44-36 to eventual state champ Eastland-Pearl City.

“It was one of those things we had worked on and were waiting for the right moment,” Schneeman said. “Their DBs had been pretty aggressive that game, so I felt confident in that call, and we ended up winning.”

Schneeman said Jochums could have run the ball on the play, but was glad he made the right call to pass it.

“He had the option to run it, but as soon as the corner moved on him he was supposed to just dump it to the wideout,” Schneeman said. “It’s a little funky where it’s so condensed, running it on the 3. It can be a little tougher to execute.

“But it worked out.”

Fieldcrest made the playoffs in five of Schneeman’s six seasons in Minonk, including another semifinal berth in 2019.

The 2014 season was the first time Fieldcrest won a playoff game, and the team hasn’t been back to the playoffs since Schneeman left.

“That year it was a huge game for a lot of different reasons,” Schneeman said. “Momence was really good, and it kind of seemed we were on a collision course all year. I don’t know, I just kind of had that feeling. We ended up playing them, had the lead early, then they took the lead. To go from the lowest of lows, fourth down in your own territory, to all of a sudden a miracle happens, it felt like their kids were pretty down after that.

“A play like that, momentum from week to week is kind of fickle, but you eke out a play like that, it gives your kids a lot of confidence.”

Schneeman said his favorite play call from his time in DeKalb was a similar use of going against tendencies. The Barbs were up 14-0 against Neuqua Valley, a team they hadn’t beaten since joining the DuPage Valley Conference.

Time was winding down, and the Barbs faced a third-and-6, knowing a first down would allow them to run the clock down to at least the point where the Wildcats couldn’t score twice more.

Schneeman said that season, a lot of the Barbs’ running game went behind H-back (a fullback-tight end hybrid) Jarvis Davis, now a fullback at Concordia. So in another play Schneeman called kind of funky looking, Davis lined up on one side, drew the attention of the defense, and running back Talen Tate carried the ball the other direction.

The Barbs ran the clock down to under a minute and got the win, eventually making the playoffs for the first and still only time under Schneeman.

“The way they were playing the H-back, they overplayed where he was going,” Schneeman said. “Talen was able to get out to the front side, and he picked up like 26. It was exactly what we needed at the right time.”