Record Newspapers football notes: ‘Relentless’ Rider Larson, Plano defense shine in shutout of Johnsburg

Rider Larson may not have the size of some that play along the defensive line.

The Plano junior was a giant last Friday.

The 5-foot-11, 190-pound defensive tackle had seven tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack, his sterling performance keying Plano’s 19-0 shutout of Johnsburg to snap a three-game losing streak.

“Any time you get a D-linemen getting more than five tackles you’re doing things,” Plano coach Rick Ponx said. “You can’t single block him because he’s quick enough to get off the block and he’s just relentless. They tried to block him one-on-one and he’d chase the play down and make a tackle. He had two tackles for loss, he has that relentless capability, and he had a sack on top of it.

“He’s coming on strong. He played well at La Salle-Peru, and played well at Richmond-Burton, but we didn’t come out on top of those games. He’s progressed well and shined at Johnsburg.”

Ponx said that the Plano coaching staff liked Larson on the offensive line as a JV player, but he just didn’t fit with the guys the Reapers (3-3) have. He has come into his own on the defensive side.

“He’s come a long way,” Ponx said. “He takes coaching extremely well and plays well with his hands, and he’s a good athlete and athletically a good player. Although he’s not the size of some of the bigger kids he plays with leverage and plays with his hands and has a relentless drive. He’s doing everything us coaches are asking him to do and has had an opportunity to make plays.”

Plano’s defense as a whole was superb against Johnsburg, holding the Skyhawks to 80 total yards of offense with just 27 yards rushing on 18 carries. The Reapers host Harvard this week as they look to stay alive in the playoff chase.

“[Plano defensive coordinator] coach [John] Clarke did a nice job of preparing the kids for what they would face, based on formation what was going to happen and the guys were able to react fast,” Ponx said. “Any time you play with confidence and know what is coming, you look a lot faster and it gets disheartening for the other team. We were extremely well-prepared for their offense. We have a lot of respect for their quarterback, he can run and we worked to make sure he wasn’t the guy that beat us.”

Plano’s next man up

Armando Martinez has taken on the unique dual role of quarterback and linebacker for Plano the past three seasons.

He’s taken on a new role now.

With David Cox going down with what Ponx said is likely a season-ending injury, Martinez has been moved to fullback on offense with Kaiden Schimandle taking over at quarterback. Martinez ran for 54 yards on 13 carries against Johnsburg.

“Next man up,” Ponx said. “We were able to take an unselfish guy, a kid like Armando, running the ball hard. He was able to pick up some first downs that we needed. That’s the situation we are win. We have to be able to take advantage of what defenses give us.”

The Reapers’ offense has been limited scoring-wise the last four weeks with a combined 48 points, after scoring a total of 62 points the first two weeks. Key is reestablishing Waleed Johnson, who did rush for 101 yards against Johnsburg after totaling 68 yards in losses to La Salle-Peru and Richmond-Burton.

“We have to take advantage of what teams are doing,” Ponx said. “The first couple weeks Waleed was able to get outside and get some big runs. Starting with the Sandwich games they started to stack the outside. We have to be able to run the ball inside.”

Oswego rediscovers running game

Oswego got back to the basics in last Friday’s 35-13 win over previously unbeaten West Aurora.

In Panther country, that means running the football.

Oswego’s running game was shut down in a 10-7 Week 5 loss at Plainfield North to the tune of 42 rushing yards at not even 2 yards per carry. Stuck in neutral against a stout Tigers’ defense, the Panthers’ running backs went into overdrive last week.

Ayden Villa ran for 145 yards on 13 carries, and Noah Vera 147 yards on 25 carries. Villa, Dylan King, quarterback Brett Connolly and Lucas Andersen all took in touchdowns in the back-on-track game.

“That was the game plan coming in, coming off a really disappointing rushing performance versus Plainfield North, one of the best defenses we’ll see,” Oswego coach Brian Cooney said. “Getting back to basics and Panther football. If that means run the football every time, so be it.”

Reestablishing the running game was a priority throughout the course of the week of practice. That means getting multiple kids the ball, an Oswego calling card this season. It became a bigger part of the game plan with heavy rains making it difficult to get outside on the Ken Pickerill Stadium grass field.

“We did try to get to the sidelines, but it just wasn’t looking great,” Cooney said. “We scrapped that just hit in between the tackles. Sometimes getting held in check against a team can either refocus teams or put a better emphasis on the small things.”

Maintaining that won’t be easy this Friday against a Yorkville defense that held Minooka to 80 rushing yards in a 17-13 Foxes’ win.

“Looking at [Yorkville’s] film from their West Aurora to Minooka games they look like two entirely different teams,” Cooney said. “I know [Yorkville coach] Dan [McGuire] does a great job. They look much more fine tunes and polished and mechanically so much better. They look just as physical as they have in the past, in some places maybe a step faster. This is not going to be a lock on and push people around game.”

Sandwich playoff eligible

Sandwich’s remarkable return to football season continued last Friday

Simeion Harris ran for 153 yards and a touchdown, and Sandwich beat Harvard 27-0 for its fifth win to become playoff eligible.

A year after not fielding a varsity team, two years after going 0-9, Sandwich (5-1) is likely headed to the playoffs for the first time since 2013.

Nick Michalek and Parker Anderson each ran for 52 yards and a TD and Braden Behringer threw a 51-yard TD pass to Brodie Case for Sandwich, which amassed 405 yards of offense and held Harvard to 77.