Football: Yorkville picks up first win of the season with 31-8 victory over Joliet West

JOLIET -- Joliet West entered Friday night’s home contest against Yorkville looking to bounce back from a loss against Morris in Week 2. The Foxes, meanwhile, were just looking to get their first win of the season after a pair of rough setbacks to open the year.

Both teams had made their names on defense to begin the year and that remained the case Friday night. It took a quarter and a half, but the offense finally caught up for the Foxes and that made all the difference.

Special teams got it going first, but then the offense led Yorkville to a 31-8 victory over Joliet West.

The game got off to a sluggish start in more than one sense as kickoff was delayed an hour following a lockdown at Joliet West. Once the game did start, it was a struggle for both offenses as the first quarter was scoreless. West gained just 12 offensive yards while Yorkville (1-2) quarterback Jake Beethem tossed an interception to Thomas Jones and had a fumble picked up by Maison Glover.

It wasn’t until after Glover’s fumble recovery that any points got scored, but it wasn’t by West. The Tigers went three-and-out with 6:45 left in the opening half and were forced to punt. Yorkville’s Joe Freeman broke through the line and blocked the kick. Luke Zook recovered the ball and ran it in from 5 yards out to put the Foxes up 7-0.

“There’s no secret that we’ve struggled to score points,” Yorkville coach Dan McGuire said. “We’ve only scored seven points in two games (before tonight). We just needed that top to come off and our defense played really tremendously all game which really opened things up for us.”

The Tigers initially responded well to the pressure, getting the ball down to the Foxes’ 19-yard line, but a series of injuries and a holding penalty stalled the momentum. West wound up attempting a 41-yard field goal attempt, but the kick was short. Shortly after, Beethem connected with Northern Illinois commit Dyllan Malone for a 55-yard touchdown to make it 14-0 Foxes.

Just when it looked like West would go into the second half down 14-0, another special teams miscue made it a 16-0 deficit. With 24.9 seconds until the midway point, the Tigers lined up to punt, but the snap sailed high and through the back of the end zone for a safety.

The second half saw Malone make one of the best catches you’ll see all year. With 4:45 left in the third at the Tiger 33, Beethem tossed it Malone’s way, but a touch high. Malone bobbled the ball with his right hand before miraculously pulling it into his body and running in from the 15 for a touchdown. That made it 24-0 after a successful two-point conversion.

Credit the Tigers for not giving up. They responded beautifully as Antoine Brooks hit Payton Turner for a 51-yard gain to set up an 8-yard TD pass to Landon Mars. Brooks hit Jordan Bennett for a 2-point conversion to make it 24-8 with 2:56 left in the period.

That was as close to a comeback as the Tigers would get, however, as Ryan Wulff scored from five yards out late in the fourth to make it 31-8 and close out any hope for the Tigers.

Malone finished with four catches for 82 yards and two touchdowns while Bryce Griffin had a pair of sacks.

“We practice through these kinds of games in practice and it translated to the game,” said Malone. “You saw what we could do so we’re going to keep working for it.”

Joliet West (1-2) had plenty of positives to take away. The defense forced two turnovers, had three sacks and did more than enough most of the night. The offense showed what it was capable of with the touchdown drive as well. Coach Dan Tito was focused solely on encouraging his players heading into next week’s game against Plainfield North.

“We just need to keep putting out positive energy,” Tito said. “We got down a little bit so now we need to focus on the positive energy rather than letting that spread. We don’t want to get down on ourselves. ... We’re just trying to keep believing in ourselves.”