GAME FILM: Ah, Another Win for the Vikings

It's a great deal of fun to watch this Viking team develop. Each week, coach Rob Wicinski adds a new wrinkle, another player steps up, and more weapons are added to an offense that's getting sharper and more diverse.

With Friday's 48-20 win at Memorial Field in Elgin, the Vikings improve their season mark to 2-2 and remain perfect in the Upstate Eight River Division standings.

Perfect, of course, isn't what you'd call certain aspects of the execution Friday night. I apologize for not having the total number of penalties or the total real estate the Vikings gave back Friday night, but I remember a holding or two, offsides, pass interference, illegal motion, a sideline penalty and a roughing the kicker.

Granted, some of those calls were, shall we say, interesting, and I can attest that the Geneva coaches in the press box weren't entirely happy about several. But a little more precision, a little more discipline and quite a few less yellow flags will be needed Friday for the Vikings to beat St. Charles North (2-2) at Homecoming.

Here's the weekly post-game post mortem:

Let's Start With the Unheralded

Maybe one of the biggest plays of the game came in the fourth quarter right after Parker Woodworth's huge 45-yard run and Connor Quinn's 2-yard TD with 8:47 left in the game. Geneva is ahead 27-13 at this point.

Geneva kicks off, it looks like a rugby scrum, somehow the ball is lateraled, and all of a sudden there's an Elgin guy with the ball in the open field with three blockers in front of him and Tyler Hickey the only Viking in between him and the goal line. Hickey steps up, makes the tackle and Geneva coast to the win.

"That was nice right there," Wicinski said. "It looked like he had a blocker there, too, on him."

Two interceptions by Matt Malecha were integral to the win.

Quarterback Matt Williams Just Keeps Getting Better

Williams completed 13 of 21 passes for 184 yards and 2 touchdowns Fridat. A very nice 59.1 percent completion ratio, thanks to statistics provided by Bob Herrera.

"He's a young pup, and he's coming along," Wicinski said (about Williams, not Herrera :). "He's commanding the game, he's taking control of the game and he's letting the game come to him. He was forcing it earlier in the year, and now he's kind of letting in flow, and he's seeing it.

"He's getting more confidence with his feet. I think his feet need to do some damage to the defenses."

A Breakthrough Game a Week

More than a few players broke into the offensive scheme Friday night, showing just how many potential weapons the Vikings have. Parker Woodworth is a strong runner, and when he comes in with fresh legs, defenses move back.

A week ago, Russ Acton (No. 19) had a five catches for 105 yards against St. Charles East. This week, Ben Rogers (No. 7) had seven for 130 yards and 2 TDs.

"I'd like to get them both going at the same time, huh?" Wicinski said. "You know, I need to emphasize both of them. Because this week we emphasized on 7 and kept working 19 and last week we kind of emphasized 19 and worked on 7, you know, to get better."

"I feel pretty good about the passing game right now," he said, quite rightly.

Quarterback Controversy—Not

Wicinski was asked after the game what it says about Rogers to play so well as receiver after losing the starting quarterback job to Williams.

"That doesn't bother him at all, as long as he's playing. He's a great kid, man. He's all about the team, very unselfish. I think he's grown two inches since he walked into camp at Broadview. He's going to be one of my biggest wideouts before it's all said and done. He's thriving, he's a good athlete and we could put him anywhere," Wicinski said.

"He's a nice problem to have."

Good Stuff in Other Media

• There's a great photo of Rogers' big-play catch by Brian Hill on the Daily Herald Web site.
• I sat next to Tribute correspondent Alex Mayster in the press box Friday. Very nice guy.

Superstitions

Yes, I have a few. Got rid of one little jinx this week. Until Friday, either the sophs won or the Vikings varsity won, but not both at the same time. As you know, the sophs and the varsity took care of business in Elgin. 

Tell Your Statistics to Shut Up *

Just a few to highlight this week:

• Woodward and Brian Favis are the team's new leading rushers in terms of yards-per-carry average. Woodworth had 78 yards on six carries for a whopping 13.0 ypc, Favis gained 10 yards on one carry against Elgin, and if he stopped right now would end the year with a 20 ypc average. We, of course, don't want him to stop.
• Connor Quinn had his first 100-yard game of the season Friday. He tallied 114 yards on 22 carries (2 TDs) on the HerreraMeter. Quinn had 97 against Rock Island and 96 against Morgan Park.
• Geneva hasn't exactly dominated opponents this season. The Vikings have outscored their foes 109-105 in four games. The very good news is that they have outscored opponents 48-20 in the fourth quarter.

As Mr. Burns would say on The Simpsons: Excellent

* Subhead courtesy of Jim Bouton.

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