Friday, November 28, 2008 11:28 PM CST
Warriors can be very thankful
By MIKE MONAHAN, Staff Writer
mmonahan@jg-tc.com
Casey-Westfield did itself proud.
The goal of every high school football player is to win the state title in their respective class. Although Casey-Westfield came up short, falling to Immaculate Conception of Elmhurst 36-17 Friday in the IHSA Class 2A state title game they still had an amazing season.
“I am very proud of our 16 seniors and the whole team today,” said Casey coach Keith Sinclair.
The Warriors finished with the second best record in school history at 13-1 and were the first team not only from Casey, but the area to play on the turf at the University of Illinois’ Memorial Stadium on a day with temperatures in the low 40s.
Immaculate Conception had rolled through the four playoff games, taking control in the opening quarter and having no game closer than 21 points.
Casey made sure they were not going to fall into that trap, forcing two fumbles in the first quarter and scoring three points off one of them to become the first IC opponent to lead the Knights since falling to Wheaton St. Francis, a team that is in the Class 5A title game, 45-21 Oct. 18.
“Naturally against every great football team like we played today, you can get the ball anywhere you want to on the field, but that doesn’t guarantee you are going to score. They have been very dominating throughout the playoffs against all of their opponents and our kids did a great job of slowing them down early and gave us opportunities.”
Casey trailed 30-3 in the third quarter, but never quit, finishing with 281 yards against the Knights, the most IC allowed in the playoffs.
Mitch Snyder, Kirk Shawver, Aaron Rhoads, Taylor Biggs, Kaleb Brandenburg, Jason Clapp, Zach Purcell, Nate Sandiford, Patrick White, Derek Bennett, Andrew Kuhn, Bruce Savard, Doug Edwards, Nick Shackelford, Michael Davidson and Zach Rich finished their careers by making the Class 2A Final Four three years in a row after reaching the quarterfinals their freshmen year. The Warriors went through back-to-back seasons winning all nine regular season games and the Little Illini Conference title.
“We went to the Final Four twice and kept knocking on the door and this year … we finally broke through and (they) had their day of glory,” said Sinclair. “I am proud of them and all of their accomplishments and they can become part of our football tradition at Casey and always hold their heads with great pride of what they accomplished.”
Sandiford said, “We had an amazing crowd today and it was really a great thing playing on this big of a field. It was really awesome. We didn’t give up and kept trying hard.”
The captains, Brandenburg, Biggs, Snyder, Rhoads, Shawver and Sandiford went up the platform to receive their second place trophy and heard a big roar from the Casey crowd as they held the trophy up high.
“When I look back on my career I will remember this and all of the hard work that everyone has put in,” said Biggs. “The coaches (Sinclair, Kevin Anderson, Rick Knust, Gene Vidoni, Mike Schackelford and Jim Sullivan)-they belived in us all the way through. Being able to get here is just a dream, but it would have been nice to win this one.”
Immaculate Conception’s junior quarterback Will Cronin said, “We faced a great team in Casey-Westfield. They were smacking us every single play.”
It was another first for me as a sportswriter also. I had covered Arcola twice, but both times were at Illinois State Universities Hancock Stadium. This was my first time covering a state game at Illinois and it was a great thrill almost just as much as it was for the players and Casey fans. Thanks for taking time for the interviews and thanks for the incredible season, one that I won’t forget and on that you can be proud of and remember in your future years.
Contact Mike Monahan at mmonahan@jg-tc.com or 238-6854.
Add your comments
Not already registered?
Then click Here.
Comment policy:
JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.
In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.
We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.
No comment may contain:
* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.
If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.
|
|
|
