Mustangs Foil Proviso East's Defensive Strategy

With a 38-9 victory over Proviso East Friday night, the football team has extended its conference winning streak to 30 games.

To no one’s surprise, Proviso East focused all of its defensive effort on trying to stop running back Josh Williams Friday night.

To the Pirates’ everlasting regret, they forgot all about wide receivers Marco Scalzetti and Anthony Farinella.

Proviso East put eight defenders in the box and tried blitzing up the middle in an attempt to bottle up Williams, who came into the West Suburban Conference Gold Division contest with 1,414 rushing yards in his first six games.

The strategy worked at first, as Williams managed 36 yards on his first nine carries. But the host Mustangs ultimately foiled the scheme, as quarterback A.J. Simoncelli completed 11 of 18 passes for 167 yards and two touchdowns, one each to Scalzetti and Farniella.

“We know teams are going to focus in on Josh but we know that we can throw the ball and we were trying to create a little bit more balance on our offense and I think we successfully did that tonight,” said Scalzetti, who had a second touchdown reception called back by a penalty and finished with three catches for 75 yards.

“We know that we’re going to need that in the playoffs down the road. I think everyone’s feeling good about the win.”

Scalzetti’s touchdown grab, a 46-yarder that put the Mustangs (7-0, 4-0) ahead to stay with 6:28 left in the first quarter, came on a play in which he was wide open at the Proviso 25.

“We like to put me in motion to try and confuse teams, and we happened to use it enough to leave me wide open and A.J. threw a great ball,” Scalzetti said. “It was a great play.”

The game didn’t start out so great for Downers South, which fell behind the Pirates (1-6, 1-3) when Christian Aguirre booted a 41-yard field goal. That came three plays after Proviso East’s Brian Ballard intercepted a pass from Simoncelli, who was hit as he threw, at the Downers 25.

The Mustangs defense held the visitors to one yard to limit the damage, which Williams knew wasn’t fatal.

“No, [he wasn’t concerned] at all,” Williams said. “We knew that we would learn from our mistakes and pick ourselves back up and do what we had to do to regain the lead and win the game.”

Scalzetti’s touchdown gave Downers South a 7-3 lead. Seconds later, sophomore DeAndre Washington recovered a fumble on the kickoff. Even though Farinella missed a 33-yard field goal on the ensuing drive, the stage had been set for a dominant outing by the South defense.

The Mustangs forced four turnovers, including interceptions by Washington and Nick Matysik and a blocked punt by Melvin Saulsberry, and allowed only 200 yards of total offense, 81 of which came on a touchdown run by Ryan Jones early in the third quarter. By that time, the Mustangs led 21-9 and Terrance Allen blocked the extra-point try.

Williams followed that by capping a 10-play, 71-yard drive with a 13-yard touchdown run and, one play after Saulsberry’s punt block, Simoncelli followed with a 37-yard TD strike to Farinella, who later capped the scoring with a 32-yard field goal.

Williams finished with 31 carries for 253 yards and three touchdowns and didn’t mind sharing the spotlight with his receivers.

“I thought that was really good,” he said. “That allowed us to show that we can pass the ball. It all worked out.”

That was just what Downers South coach John Belskis intended.

“We have two kids on the perimeter that if they load up inside like they did tonight and blitz, we’ll take the ball and throw it out to them,” Belskis said.

“I know Josh is getting all the recognition and people come out and say, ‘Ooh, that kid is a big-time player,’ but we have 11 good kids that are good high school players. Our tight end is good, our receivers are good, our tailback is fine, so at least offensively we’ve got the ability to counter whatever teams are trying to do to stop us.”