Coalers prevail in spite of conditions
By T.G. SMITH
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tsmith@morrisdailyherald.com
Dzuris Athletic Field had taken a beating. First from Mother Nature on Friday night, and then from the Dunlap and Coal City football teams on Saturday night.
It was surely enough to make Coalers' Field and Grounds Director John Cullick cringe.
"We didn't know coming in what the field conditions were going to be like. On Friday night, the water was all the way five lines onto the track," Coal City coach Lenny Onsen pointed out from the soggy turf after the game. "But the field held up well."
In other words, kudos to Cullick for his due diligence. Still, the field was a tough one for the teams to do battle on.
"It's the worst field conditions I've ever played on. It looked fine, but every time you'd step on the field, you'd sink in," Coal City senior running back Bobby Kroeger said. "I know Mr. Cullick does a lot of work on the field, and he does a great job, but the conditions were tough tonight."
"We managed to plug away on a sloppy field tonight," Onsen admitted.
To the tune of a 30-7 win against Dunlap in the IHSA Class 4A Playoffs.
According to Onsen, the game plan for his team coming in was to run the ball in order to set up the pass.
"We still wanted to run the ball coming in because we didn't know what to expect, and once we did that, we knew it was going to open up the pass," Onsen said.
"We had to establish the run, especially on a field like that," Kroeger confirmed. "We stuck with it and were able to power them all night."
Coal City did power up on the Eagles on the night. In fact, Kroeger keyed the 180-yard, 34 carry night with 112 yards in 18 carries. The success of the running game then, in fact, opened up the throwing lanes for Coalers' quarterback Colt Smith.
"Our receivers ran good routes and on a tough field like this, the advantage was to our receivers," Smith said. "Considering everything, we were able to throw the ball like we wanted to."
Smith completed an amazing 10-of-13 passes on the night for 160 yards. Six different Coal City receivers caught passes.
On the other side of the field, Dunlap and its aerial assault was grounded from the onset by the Coal City defense. All nine passes attempted by Dunlap went incomplete in the first half. In total, the Eagles had 40 yards total in 11 rushing attempts.
But things changed quickly in the second half when the Dunlap defense held Coal City, forced a punt and then scored on the ensuing drive. The Eagles went 90 yards in seven plays to make it a 20-7 contest with 5:03 left in the third.
"I could tell in the second half that they were coming out with a fire in their belly, but we took it to them in the end," Smith said.
The locals did so by scoring on a 6-yard pass play and by booting a 28-yard field goal to complete the scoring and the victory.
For the contest, Coal City wound up with 340 yards of total offense.
"The bottom line is that they are a better football team than we are," Dunlap coach Brett Cazalet said. "We played a better football team tonight."
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