Kendall County notes: Luke Zook, Yorkville get running game off the ground in eye-opening win over Minooka

Luke Zook is a kid who’s done a whole lot of winning at Yorkville.

He was a sophomore starter on the Foxes’ playoff quarterfinal team in 2022. Zook was an All-Area safety on Yorkville’s conference champion last fall. Not to be forgotten, he’s also been a leader of a Yorkville wrestling team that’s reached state the last two years.

No surprise, then, that Zook keyed one of the week’s more eye-opening wins last Friday.

Zook ran for 139 yards on nine carries, with a 67-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Yorkville scored two TDs in the fourth quarter for a much-needed 21-7 win at Minooka, handing the Indians their first loss.

“Zook is a kid that doesn’t like to lose. You can see that it has been mounting the last couple weeks that we haven’t been as successful as we should be,” Yorkville coach Dan McGuire said. “He’s one of those kids that wills us to win the football game. He’s a good leader and a heck of a football player.”

It was a huge win for a 3-3 Yorkville team that will need to overcome an 0-2 start to the season if it’s going to make the program’s sixth straight playoff appearance. But there is precedent for that late resurgence. Last season, the Foxes won their last four regular-season games, starting with a win over Minooka, to reach the playoffs and win the Southwest Prairie West title.

“A huge win,” Zook said. “We definitely had a rough start. We knew we had to start turning the season around. Watching film throughout the week, we knew we had that game if we played our game and played a good game.”

Zook was part of a Yorkville running game that finally got off the ground in the season’s sixth week.

The Foxes as a team rushed for 230 yards on 31 attempts. Besides Zook, T.J. Harland had 53 yards on 14 carries with a go-ahead 14-yard TD in the fourth quarter. Otto Eidsness also had a TD run. In five games prior to Friday, Yorkville had managed to go over 100 yards rushing as a team only twice, and twice had netted negative rushing yardage.

“First of all, not trying to make excuses, trying to be real, our entire offensive line from last year graduated,” McGuire said. “We have been trying to feel some things out. What we have historically done we have not been able to do. We’ve been playing at times with 3-4 wide receivers which is something we have consistently never done. It’s a combination of inexperience up front and our personnel being unique.

“Once you see as an offensive line the backs running as hard as TJ and Zook did you could tell the linemen were feeding off their effort.”

For Zook, the nine carries was a season-high, and his most since he had eight attempts Week 1. Coming into Week 6, Zook only had 18 carries over Yorkville’s first five games, which could be attributed to how vital a part of the Foxes’ defense he is.

“Extremely important to what we want to do defensively; we do wonder should we have him get the ball more,” McGuire said. “I struggle with it. It’s a decision that I don’t take lightly because we want to keep him as fresh as possible.”

Zook, who will be joining his older Andrew at Lindenwood University next season, said he was prepared to take on double duty this season.

“That is all in the offseason,” he said. “I knew I was probably going to play a decent amount both ways. I took summer ball seriously, pushed my body hard in the offseason. During games I’m always keeping my cool, getting some water.”

Zelensek picks up slack for Oswego

Oswego practiced a next man up mentality in last Friday’s 22-6 win at Bolingbrook.

The Panthers lost starting running back Ayden Villa to injury leading the Raiders by just two points. In stepped junior Dekker Zelensek, who rushed for two touchdowns as Oswego pulled away with the win to improve to 6-0.

“Dekker is a kid that’s got a faire share of carries,” Oswego coach Brian Cooney said. “Obviously Ayden has got the majority of those. Throughout the course of the year Dekker has always been ready when his number is called, certain formations. He was able to turn the corner on his runs. He’s even-keeled, smart, a competitor, ready to go.”

Cooney is optimistic Villa will be ready to go Friday at Yorkville.

“He’s doing better progressively – we’re hoping to have him back on Friday,” Cooney said. “A couple days rest might not be a bad thing. If there is a way for him to play, he’ll want to. If not next man up.”

By the numbers

Oswego’s win over Plainfield North in Week 5 marked the 100th career victory for Cooney. The win last Friday clinched Oswego’s 11th playoff appearance since Cooney came aboard as head coach in 2012. Oswego is one of just 48 undefeated teams heading into the final three weeks of the season.

Oswego East (2-4), Yorkville (3-3) and Sandwich (3-3) are three of 260 teams statewide with either four, three or two wins. All three are still in the playoff hunt, but have much work to do and each have one unbeaten team left on their schedule. And, in Oswego East and Yorkville’s case, they each play each other, in Week 8.