Lion Quarterback Schools Warrior Defense

Deerfield High School may have dismissed class Friday afternoon, but lessons continued for the Warrior football team Friday night as St. Viator quarterback Bobby Calmeyn tested a defense new in a number of ways.

“We got schooled today,” Deerfield Coach Steve Winiecki said. “We had 11 new starters on defense. We have a completely new defensive scheme. I felt Ok with the scheme.” Warriors David Vanderkloot, Colton Emmerich and Landon Hinds played both offense and defense.

Calmeyn solved the system, connecting on 29 of his 45 passes for 368 yards and four touchdowns leading the Lions to a 41-15 win. “He played a great game but we did some things to make it easy.” Winiecki said.

One thing St. Viator did was challenge Deerfield after the Warriors had apparently stopped the Lions on three downs. On three occasions—including a third and 15—St. Viator went for the first down rather than punt or try a field goal.

“They had a couple of big breaks like the third and 15,” Winiecki said. “On one they threw for a touchdown,” he added referring to the Lions first score, a 42-yard pass from Calmeyn to Ben Dickey.

There were bright spots on defense as well. Alexander Williams, who also scored a touchdown for Deerfield on a 14-yard run—deflected two of Calmeyn’s passes heading for the end zone. “Alex did a nice job covering on those,” Winiecki said.

On offense, Deerfield bounced right back in the game to take an 8-7 lead after St. Viator scored first. The team got strong running all night from Hinds and Alec Frank along with quarterback Ben Ethridge, who was hurried at times when he tried to pass.

Quick to call victories team wins; Winiecki did the same with the defeat that put Deerfield at 1-1 for the season. “This is on all of us,” he said. “We earned it. We all have a job to do.”

That job continues today when Winiecki will be the one doing the educating as team watches the film of the game, learns from its mistakes and begins to prepare for Glenbrook South at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Adams Field.

“We feel bad,” Winiecki said after the game. “Tomorrow we’ll watch the film and I suspect we’ll feel worse. I tell them we have 24 hours to celebrate a win and 24 hours to mourn a loss.”

Overall, Winiecki is happy with this the 2013 Warriors and sees it as a squad which can achieve what it has set out to do this season. “In our locker room we have four goals written on the board,” he said. “Being 9-0 is not one of them. They are still there for us.”

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