Quarterback Shuffle Can't Produce Winning Hand

Miles Osei knew he couldn’t wait much longer for a quarterback to emerge as the front-runner for Evanston’s varsity football team.

So the ETHS coach drew up a simple plan for quarterback hopefuls Jake Everds, Amare Jones and T.J. Gant to determine a pecking order at that vital position.

Score a touchdown --- and you’re back calling the signals on the next series.

Turn the ball over on downs, a lost fumble or an interception --- and it’s someone else’s turn on the next series.

Make a mental mistake during a series --- and it’s also the next man up.

But Evanston’s quarterback shuffle still hasn’t produced a winning hand. The Wildkits suffered their fifth straight defeat Friday night at Lazier Field, bowing to Glenbrook South 18-6 in a Central Suburban League South division matchup.

For the second week in a row, the ETHS offense mustered just six first downs and the Kits only found the end zone once, on a 62-yard scamper by junior Sean Hopson in the second quarter. Evanston has only averaged a single touchdown per game during that losing skid and fell to 1-5 on the season, 0-2 in conference play.

Glenbrook South moved to 5-1 and 2-0, respectively, as quarterback Andrew Bonvechio ran for one touchdown and passed for another. The Evanston defense, however, turned in another stout performance and senior safety Brian Maday sparked that effort with two interceptions.

In contrast, Evanston’s three quarterbacks combined to complete just 3-of-15 passing attempts for 24 yards. Hopson contributed 106 yards in 22 tries on the ground.

“We used the same pattern all week in practice,” noted Osei regarding the rotation of the quarterbacks. “If you don’t score, then it’s next man up. What we’re doing just isn’t good enough for (Class) 8A football. It’s not good enough for varsity football. The whole point --- is to score points, not to just be satisfied with moving the ball 20 or 30 yards before you turn the ball over.

“I think this is the fair way to do things because so far none of them stick out. We need to figure out a way to win at this point. We had a decent week of practice but we’re not in shape to the point where we can take our foot off the gas. We played with better effort overall, and the defense really made the effort of rallying to the ball and playing with passion tonight.”

Maday, a 6-foot, 170-pound senior, almost never came off the field when he played for the ETHS sophomore squad. But he was sidelined with an ankle injury at the start of his junior year, and never really got into the flow when he returned, then re-injured the ankle and was sidelined again.

But now he’s worked his way into a starting job in the defensive backfield, which was missing cornerback Justin Johnson (sprained ankle) Friday night but still limited Bonvechio to 14-of-26 passing for 194 yards.

“He and (fellow defensive back/receiver) Tristen Wilcox have been so consistent for us since fall camp started. And consistency is what wins for you, it will always show eventually,” Osei said. “They just stuck with it and they’re really consistent.”

Maday snatched a pass to foil a GBS threat on the second possession of the game. But his theft, unfortunately, came at the 1-yard line and two plays after it happened the Titans swarmed over Hopson in the end zone for a safety and a 2-0 lead.

The visitors took advantage of the “short” field after the ensuing kickoff and grabbed a 9-0 lead when Bonvechio found Parker Ward for a 12-yard touchdown pass at the end of a 54-yard drive.

Evanston gambled and failed on a fourth down try at the GBS 35 early in the second period, as Mike Pryor mustered just a 1-yard gain on fourth and two. South responded immediately, as Bonvechio launched a 64-yard bomb to Vince Prikos and then scrambled into the end zone from the 1 himself.

Hopson got the hosts on the scoreboard on the next series. On a third down attempt, he was stacked up off tackle and bounced outside for a 62-yard scoring dash down the right sideline. But the Wildkits never got near the red zone again and turned the ball over on downs three times after that score, and also lost a fumble.

GBS scored the only points of the second half on a 30-yard field goal by John Mavrianos with 2:04 left in the game.

The Wildkits will host New Trier next Saturday afternoon in their Homecoming game.