Record Newspapers football notes: Oswego East tweaks its defensive scheme, still gets good results

Oswego East is a program that’s always prided itself on defense.

Head coach Tyson LeBlanc’s philosophy is to put his best athletes at quarterback, running back – and the rest on the defensive side.

That continues to be the case this season – with a twist. Oswego East has changed the structure of its defense, going from more of a 3-4 to a 3-3-3, 3 high safety look.

“It allows us to get better athletes on the field,” LeBlanc said. “It’s something we started to do last year in long yardage situations. We just made the full jump this year. The types of kids we have in our program, we always have safety-type guys. We wanted to put them on the field in position to be successful.”

So far, so good.

Oswego East (4-1) through five games has allowed just 44 points, and its defense has been even better when looking under the hood. The Wolves’ first-team defense has given up just three touchdowns, all three on big plays, one of them on what LeBlanc chalked up to a bad call.

While West Aurora was able to move the ball last week on the Wolves, and had the advantage in time of possession, Oswego East’s defense rose to the occasion when it mattered in a 21-3 win.

“We’ve come to grips with the fact that we used to be a high-pressure team; we’re more of a bend but don’t break philosophy now,” LeBlanc said. “West Aurora was able to move the ball on us, but in the red zone, when the field shrinks we do a good job of shutting people down in those close proximity areas.”

A ringleader of the Wolves’ back line of defense is senior safety Mike Polubinski.

In Oswego East’s prior defensive scheme Polubinski was mainly in the middle of Cover-3 with more ground to cover. Now he said he’s field side, which changes his eye level a bit but he doesn’t have to worry about as much space with a little more help.

“Teams might believe they can take advantage of the run game, with more guys back, and three guys on the line but it’s quite the opposite,” Polubinski said. “Definitely, for me, it’s different in a sense. I still cover a lot of ground being in the middle. It just feels different. I don’t have to get all the way to the sideline. I still do Cover-3 but instead of looking at the slots and tight end I’m reading two to one and getting outside.”

Polubinski said that the Wolves’ work in the red zone last week came down to a “battle of the wills.” His twin brother Zach, an outside linebacker, had 12.5 tackles, four tackles for loss and a sack in the win.

“That’s a testament to our grit,” Mike Polubinski said. “They may get a couple first downs, but they don’t get close to the goal line.”

The Wolves’ grit will get tested this week with a matchup at Minooka. LeBlanc noted that Minooka runs 50% of its offensive plays in a double tight formation, and runs the ball 92% of the time when in that formation.

“There is no secret what they’re going to do. We know what’s coming, it’s a matter of if you can stop it,” LeBlanc said. “It’s that old smashmouth style. The name of the game is physicality. You have to be physical.”

Good night for Plano QB

Plano’s long drive to Richmond-Burton last Friday was also a long night on the football field, a 49-6 loss to the Rockets, a team Reapers’ coach Rick Ponx called a “state championship level team.”

But Plano could take positives from the experience.

One of them was the play of Armando Martinez. Plano’s junior QB was 19-for-38 passing for 202 yards. Martinez spread the wealth, too, with Waleed Johnson, Thomas Harding and Nick Serio all catching five passes and Noah Uhrich four.

“He was accurate in what he did. We had a couple drops and a penalty or he could have had an even better night,” Ponx said. “That opens up a part of our offense that we haven’t depended on or had. Nick Serio was another positive. He has a great pair of hands, was fearless going across the middle, made a nice first-down catch. Getting a kid like Nick that hasn’t been a big part of the offense, seeing Armando throw it the way we did, we took some good things out of the game. Armando wasn’t getting beat up, wasn’t getting sacked, we didn’t turn the ball over on the ground, there are little things we can pick and choose.”

The Reapers return home for their Homecoming game against Johnsburg, a huge game for both teams that enter Friday with 2-3 records. Plano beat Johnsburg 27-26 last season.

“Every game from here on out is a playoff game,” Ponx said. “We have to play our best football and string together some wins. We went up there last year in the same situation and it came down to the wire. They will remember that and want to come to our place and beat us. I think the kids are ready for this. They want to come home and put on a show for the fans, Homecoming, that always helps.”

Ponx is mindful of Johnsburg RB Jake Metze, who ran for close to 250 yards against Plano last year. Anchoring a big Johnsburg offensive line is NIU recruit Jacob Welch.

“Our guys up front have to be stout and be able to handle that,” Ponx said.

Foxes looking to fix mistakes

Yorkville coach Dan McGuire tipped his cap to Plainfield North’s defense for its 24-0 shutout of the Foxes last weekend – but also noted that his team didn’t help their cause anyway.

The Foxes struggled in the early downs, had 50 yards of penalties and turned the ball over twice. It added up to a forgettable night offensively, as Yorkville did not cross midfield and put extra strain on its defense.

“When it’s third and 15, the odds of getting a first down are pretty slim,” McGuire said. “If you look at our drives we had a fumble, an interception, a personal foul, holding, pretty much every drive we had self-inflicted wounds. It’s hard to execute your game plan when you’re playing behind the sticks.”

Still, even after the loss, 4-1 Yorkville is in good shape big picture. The Foxes, in fact, nearly cracked the Associated Press top 10 Class 7A statewide poll last week, among 14 7A teams receiving votes.

“One thing our kids should be proud of is a lot of people are asking questions like ‘what happened’ last week. That’s a good football team we played,” McGuire said. “It just shows that the expectations for this program are high. That’s part of the deal. When people anticipate things going well, things are magnified. We have to embrace it and try to bounce back.”

The Foxes will look to get back on track against a 1-4 West Aurora that, on paper, looks like a good opportunity for a bounce-back. Yorkville is 3-0 against West Aurora since the two schools joined the Southwest Prairie Conference, but last year’s game was decided by one point and a 2019 meeting by two points.

“In our league, you can throw out the records,” McGuire said. “They are well-coached and they have good players. Every game has been really close.”