MINOOKA – Special teams players often are overlooked in a football game, but not Friday night as Plainfield North’s Carlos Conley and Kanon Woodill made everyone take notice in North’s 19-9 Southwest Prairie Conference win over Minooka.
Conley and Woodill accounted for all of the Tigers 19 points on a night that started with the opening kickoff, as Conley went 90 yards untouched with Woodill kicking the extra point to grab a quick 7-0 lead. The Conley touchdown would be the only one for the night on the victors side.
“After I caught the ball on the kickoff I looked up and their was a hole you could drive a truck though,” Conley said. “I have to give credit to everyone of my teammates on the kickoff team for blocking like they did. I cut to my left coming out of that hole, and I knew I had the touchdown.”
Conley ended the night with 140 return yards, and he had a defensive touchdown on a 95 yard interception return that was nullified by a block in the back penalty. However, that interception led to a 34-yard field goal by Woodill to give the Tigers a 13-3 lead with 4:14 left in the third quarter.
“That interception was nice, and to score would have been great, but I understand my teammates want to help us get down the field, and I don’t blame them at all for the penalty,” Conley said.
Woodill also connected on field goals from 28, 43 and 36 yards and just missed attempts from 34 and 52 yards. The 52-yard attempt had plenty of distance but was just wide left.
“Every time I step on the field, no matter what distance the kick is, I’m confident I will make it,” said Woodill, who will be attending Northern Illinois University to kick. “I played soccer and now football and coach ask me if I could make the 52 yarder, and I told him yes but it was just wide.”
“Tonight was a big win for us. This has been hyped up all week, and we thought we should have won last week against Oswego, so this was really big.”
In addition to the great special teams play, North had a solid defensive effort, especially up front. Minooka had three opportunities in the first half inside the 20 yard line but could only come away with a 25-yard field goal from Mason Spivey to make it a 7-3 game with 6:33 left in the first half.
“We are using some players both ways on that defensive front, and we are rotating a lot because with Oswego last week and Minooka this week we knew what it was going to be like,” North coach Anthony Imbordino said. “Our special teams did a great job tonight, but we spend time during practice on that because it is important.
“Tonight was a great team win for our program. Every class wants to raise the bar each season and raise that standard of excellence. We want to finish this season 5-1 to propel us to next year. Our offense is made up of mostly juniors, so this was big for them to experience this win tonight.”
North running back Jared Gumila had 100 yards rushing on 26 attempts, but cramped up midway through the fourth quarter.
“Last week he (Gumila) carried 25 times and tonight 26 and really started getting some cramps, so we are pretty much at his limit with 20-25 carries.