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AURORA – Every time DeKalb scored late Friday in an attempt to tie things up against Waubonsie Valley, the Warriors had an answer.
Stefan Popov had a key stuff on a two-point conversion, then Chrisjan Simmons broke off his biggest run of the night for a score in a 28-19 win as the Warriors strengthened their playoff position with their fourth win of the year.
“It’s one thing I learned from my [North Central College] coach John Thorne, we talked about refusing to lose,” Waubonsive Valley coach Adam Pucylowski said. “It’s something I started to preach to our guys, and it was great to see our guys step up, get a couple first downs, move the ball, score. It was awesome to our kids respond.”
The Warriors (4-3, 2-1 Southwest Valley Green) built a 14-0 lead late in the second quarter, but DeKalb (0-7, 0-2) answered with a quick scoring drive highlighted by a 59-yard Mariyan Dudley run and capped with a 1-yard run by Travis Gooden, making the score 14-7 at halftime.
In the third quarter, the Barbs scored to pull within one, with quarterback Mikey Hodge - playing in place of an injured Cole Latimer - finding Davon Grant for a 33-yard gain followed by another 20-yard Hodge-to-Grant connection. Billy Miller wrapped the drive with a 20-yard catch from Hodge, but the extra point failed, making the score 14-13.
Hodge finished 19 of 26 with two touchdowns and a late interception after the Barbs were down two scores. With Latimer week-to-week - he played last week but missed time earlier in the season - coach Derek Schneeman said he played extremely well.
“He’s a tough kid, smart kid,” Schneeman said. “He just goes out there and plays to the best of his ability. He’s no-nonsense. And I’m really proud of him because as a high school kid it’s hard to have to hang in there and keep yourself prepared as the backup quarterback, and he’s done that all year. And every time we’ve called on he’s done a nice job.
The Warriors rolled off a 14-play scoring drive, capped by quarterback Josh Siekierski as he was hit finding Owen Roberts for a 15-yard score, pushing the lead to 21-13 with 10:42 left in the fourth.
The Barbs answered with an 11-play drive, ending with Hodge finding Miller for 5 yards on a fourth and goal for the score, but Popov leveled Grant on the 2-point run to preserve the lead.
“I mean he’s awesome on the field, but it was great to see him take an active leadership role and help guide our guys and firing up everybody together,” Pucylowski said of Popov, who had a tackle for a loss earlier on the scoring drive and sack in the first half. “He found a way. It was Stefan this week but one thing we plead is selfishness. Do your job and sometimes guys will do things where they may not get the tackle but their teammates may.”
The Warriors answered, getting Simmons with a couple of screens, allowing him to break off his longest run of the game for the clinching touchdown, pushing the lead to 28-19 with 3:01 left.
Simmons finished with two catches for 42 yards and 69 yards on 20 carries and two touchdowns.
The Barbs added a new wrinkle in the second half, lining up Grant at running back. He was on one side of Hodge in the shotgun with Dudley on the other. He ended up with 45 yards on five carries, plus had 112 yards on eight catches after only managing two catches for 17 yards in the first half.
Schneeman said the Barbs had to get the ball in his hands more. And while he was skeptical of the move at first, Grant said it’s growing on him after some game action.
“When they talked about it at practice, I was not fond of it at all,” Grant said. “I’m like a receiver, just get me the ball through the air and all that. But I dealt with it, and it proved beneficial a lot throughout the second half.”
Siekierski threw for 211 yards, completing 14 of 20 passes with a pair of touchdowns. He spread the ball out, with no one catching more than four passes or gaining more than 65 yards.
Miller finished with six catches for 63 yards and Dudley had nine carries for 65 yards for the Barbs, who face Bradley-Bourbonnais (6-1, 2-1) next week.
“After this game, I feel like we’ll be a little bit more on the strong side, morale-wise,” Grant said. “We’re going to be hurting, a lot of us will, but that comes with the sport. I feel like we’ll be able to bounce back, we’ll go to Bradley-Bourbonnais, we put our pants on and we fight.”