Record Newspapers football notes: Oswego’s ‘special’ junior class a big part of 3-0 start

Oswego coach Brian Cooney said that last year he brought up the most sophomores to varsity he ever had.

And yet the sophomore team still kept rolling.

That junior class is all together again. And a huge reason for Oswego’s 3-0 start.

Junior running back Dylan King, one of those five juniors who got time on varsity as a sophomore, ran for two touchdowns in last Friday’s win over Plainfield Central. Junior wide receiver/defensive back Jeremiah Cain, another one, had an interception and touchdown catch in Week 2, and a spectacular one-handed touchdown catch last Friday. Junior linebacker Mikey Claycombe is a huge part of an Oswego first-team defense that has allowed just one score, as is fellow junior linebacker Carson Cooney, the coach’s son with an offer from Illinois.

Another junior, Brett Connolly, won a three-man quarterback competition.

“Our junior class is special,” King said. “We have tons of athletes and put in a lot of time in the weight room during the offseason. We like to push each other outside of our comfort zone to become a better football team together.”

Cooney gave kudos to his kids for showing up in the weight room to begin the process of putting an uncharacteristic 3-6 season behind the Panthers. He said that the junior class in particular has a lot of guys that love the weight room and “doing that tough, nasty work.”

“Coming off a 3-6 season we knew that we had to be better and put in more work,” King said. “Coach [John] Hugunin really created a home in that weight room during this offseason that we all looked forward to go into after school.”

King said he learned a lot as a sophomore cutting his teeth at the varsity level. Most of all, it taught him the value of leadership.

“Coach Cooney says it all the time that we need internal leadership which is something that we lacked last year,” King said. “Being a part of the team last year taught me what type of internal leadership he was looking for, which is what we have this year.”

King was one of four Oswego running backs to score touchdowns in the win over Plainfield Central. He’s a part of what appears to be a fairly deep Panthers’ backfield with senior Noah Vera and junior Aiden Villa.

“Our depth at running back is huge and a main role in our offense,” King said. “Having this much depth and a ton of athletes that can run the ball very well is key. It lets us have breathers so that every player we can go 110%. The type of runner I think I am is the typical fullback runner, not afraid of contact and let my pads do the talking.”

Oswego’s players, not particularly pleased with some predictions that pegged them at 3-6 again this season, are letting their play do the talking in a return to the blue collar type of football the program is known for.

“It’s about redefining what we’re doing and the type of mentality we have, the type of kids we have,” Cooney said. “Last year when we had to get two or three yards we had to spread things out and make our yards that way. Based on the composition of this team, we thought we could get back to that blue collar type of football, small gains, punch a couple big ones and control the clock.”

Oswego East defense, special teams come through

Oswego East (1-2) can thank its defense and special teams for playing a huge part in the team’s first win of the season, 41-0 over Plainfield East.

Andrew Wiggins and Grant Adams both returned interceptions for touchdowns. Andre Cobige had a 94-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, and a punt return to the 10-yard line set up another score.

“We’ve done good in the return game,” Oswego East coach Tyson LeBlanc said. “We had a return for a touchdown called back against Lincoln-Way West.”

The way the flow of the game worked, the Wolves went nearly seven minutes without the ball in the first half. And then Cobige returned the second-half kickoff for a touchdown.

But the Wolves got it going offensively in the second half with the field position in their favor. Sophomore running back Jasiah Watson ran for 58 yards on nine carries with two TDs.

“We talked about playing a clean game,” LeBlanc said. “Our special teams was clean, defense was clean, offensively in the second half we were clean. We had good field position, we were able to move the ball.”

Foxes lose in last seconds

Yorkville (1-2) suffered one of the more surprising losses of Week 3, as Joliet West kicked a 33-yard field goal as time expired to beat the Foxes 20-17. It marked just the second time Joliet West had toppled an Southwest Prairie Conference team from the West Division since the league separated into division play.

Yorkville, trailing 14-10 at halftime, had taken a 17-14 lead into the fourth quarter on Luke Zook’s 1-yard TD, but the visiting Tigers kicked two field goals in the final quarter to hand the Foxes their second straight home loss.

“Just in general, everybody is giving us their best game,” Yorkville coach Dan McGuire said. “We need to understand that teams will give us their best and do their best to beat us. We have to prepare for the fact that everybody is doing everything in their power to beat us. Joliet West had a good game plan, we gave them the ball with good field position in the second half, giving them momentum. We didn’t respond as well as we’d liked to.”

The Foxes were hurt by 10 penalties for 83 yards.

“Offensively we had too many negative plans; we had several holding calls, whatever the case may be, a variety of issues,” McGuire said. “It wasn’t just holding. We had false starts, missing blocks and then we’d have second and 15 or third and 20. Too many of those situations just in general. We have to find personnel that fits, see whatever fits to be successful, put kids in the right place.”

One of those kids, Zook, was primarily a defensive player the last two years on varsity, but is getting more touches as a senior on the offensive side. Zook ran for 71 yards on 15 carries Friday.

“We have several good running backs that offer different strengths,” McGuire said. “Josh [Gettemy] has got tremendous hands and route running and experience from last year. Ryan Wulff has really good speed and is a kid that can break away at any time. Zook is a combination of the two, physical yet has some speed not as much experience as Josh. We feel we have several good backs, we need to give them the best opportunity to be successful.”