NewsTribune Football Notebook: Special teams coming up big for L-P

La Salle-Peru has made several game-changing plays on special teams through the first two weeks of the season.

The Cavaliers have scored five touchdowns this season and special teams played a critical role in four of those scores.

Senior Adrian Arzola has returned two kickoffs for touchdowns.

Arzola ran for an 85-yard kick return touchdown in the Cavs’ 18-16 win over United Township in the opener and sprinted for a 95-yard kick return score that helped L-P take a halftime lead over Metramora in an eventual 22-14 loss.

“Arzola is probably one of the fastest guys on our team,” L-P coach Jose Medina said. “If you give him a little crease, he’s going to make people miss.

“It’s about the other 10 guys executing and doing their jobs too. That’s the beauty of those kickoffs.”

L-P’s special teams also set up two offensive touchdowns.

Against United Township, a Panther touched a punt and the Cavs recovered on the UT 10-yard line, which led to Marion Persich throwing a 9-yard touchdown to Andy Medina.

Cameron Olivero blocked a punt against Metamora, which gave L-P the ball at the Redbird 21-yard line. That drive ended with a 15-yard TD run by Arzola.

LIMITED ROLE

Bureau Valley was without a key player on offense and defense in Friday’s 35-0 nonconference loss to Ridgeview-Lexington on the road.

Senior running back/linebacker Elijah Endress was limited to punting duties because of a shoulder injury.

Endress ran for 183 yards and three touchdowns in the Storm’s 48-21 win over United in Week 1 and made eight tackles with one tackle for loss.

Bureau Valley coach Mat Pistole said Endress will be limited “hopefully just one more week.”

NO ROOM TO RUN

Opposing teams have found little room to run against Princeton this season.

Newman did not finish with positive yardage, finishing with negative-39 yards on the ground, in Princeton’s 28-14 victory in Week 1.

Last week, Princeton held Rockridge to 37 rushing yards in a 27-18 victory.

On the season, the Tigers have held opponents to a combined negative-2 rushing yards.

“I believe if you want to be successful, you have to run the ball on offense and stop the run on defense,” Princeton coach Ryan Pearson said. “Our game plan each week is to do that and our kids have done a great job of following the game plan, understanding formation and backfield tendencies, having film study a minimum of three days per week as well as focusing on fundamentals, and it’s paying off. As coaches, we implement the plan, but it is 100% the kids’ drive to execute it.”

HONORING MOTHERS/MOTHER FIGURES

When Nick Myer took over as coach at Fieldcrest, his alma mater, he instituted a tradition to honor the mothers and mother figures in the program with a dinner.

At the event, the moms put a chrome heart on their player’s helmets so they’re always with their player on the field and the players write their mom a letter.

“We wanted to find a way to thank our football moms for all that they do,” Meyer said. “A football program takes a village to run, and our football moms are fantastic with supporting our players.

“I know our players and their moms look forward to it. It has had a very positive impact on our team.”

STEPPING IN TO KICK

Princeton senior linebacker Ian Morris told Pearson he could kick for the Tigers this year.

The Tigers needed a new kicker with the graduation of Carlos Benavidez, a soccer player turned football player, who’s now back on the pitch at the University of Dubuque.

Morris wasn’t sure if he believed he could do it or even if Pearson would take him up on the offer.

“Beginning of year, I was kind of messing around telling them I was going to break the school record and stuff,” Morris said.

Morris never thought he’d get a shot to kick with freshman Braylon Clevenger in camp coming in from soccer.

“I thought he was going to kick. (Pearson) put me in there and it went in,” Morris said.

While Morris may have been joking about wanting to kick, Pearson took him seriously after one look.

“He wasn’t joking. 100 percent, he wasn’t joking. He’s like coach, ‘I can kick,’” Pearson said. “We threw him back there one time and we were like, ‘OK. ... Ian, you’re now our kicker.’ What a weapon for us to have.”

Morris not only kicked a 37-yarder with 4:16 left in the third quarter against Rockridge to put the Tigers up 24-18 on Friday, he added a 29-yarder three minutes later to seal the 27-18 victory.

When told his 37-yarder was a school record, tying Jaimie Reinhardt, Morris said with a smile, “Hey, my joke came through.”

INTERSTATE 8 DOMINATING

The Interstate 8 Conference has been strong in nonconference games through the first two weeks of the season.

The six teams in the conference are a combined 10-2 and have outscored opponents 303-177.

The conference has recorded several notable victories.

Sycamore has beaten Class 7A DeKalb (35-28) and Class 8A Oswego East (15-9), Kaneland defeated 2023 Class 6A semifinalist Washington (20-14), Rochelle topped Morton (36-8) and Morris has wins over Coal City (31-12) and Class 8A Joliet West (31-17).

Even the conference’s two losses have been close games.

La Salle-Peru led Metamora at halftime before losing 22-14 in Week 2 and Ottawa led at halftime of its 17-14 loss to Plano in Week 1.

The Interstate 8 has one more week of nonconference play before league games begin in Week 4.