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With the regular season a third of the way complete, we take a look at each DeKalb area team and one key factor heading into their Week 4 games.
DeKalb: Getting some confidence
The Barbs led in the fourth quarter in losses to both Sycamore and Plainfield East. But against Kaneland, it was never close as they fell 42-7.
Coach Derek Schneeman said the main goal this week is to get confidence as DeKalb faces Lincoln-Way Central at the start of Southwest Valley Green play for both teams.
“I feel like last week we got down and didn’t respond,” Schneeman said. “We’ve been stressing it’s a new season now with conference play starting and we have to come out and play with a lot of confidence on Friday.”
Sycamore: Continue to improve along the lines
Coach Joe Ryan called his Spartans a work in progress. The biggest areas still needing to progress, he said, are both the offensive and defensive lines.
Already the most inexperienced parts of the team, a key injury or two have made the problem bigger. But the Spartans have still gone 3-0 as they enter Week 4 at Rochelle.
“It’s still a work in progress on both sides of the line. It’s where most of our inexperience is,” Ryan said. “But we continue to grow and the ceiling is high. We’re not there yet, but we need to get there in a hurry on Friday.”
Rochelle leans on its rushing attack, a complete 180 from a Mahomet-Seymour team that entered as a pass-first team last week against Sycamore. But when a top receiver was injured, the Bulldogs switched mainly to the ground. They ran 61 times for 169 yards.
Ryan said, even when they started running significantly more, the main goal of the Sycamore defense was not to get beat on a deep pass.
“You can’t really judge us based on how we played Friday,” Ryan said. “We were very concerned about the big pay. We didn’t have a lot of numbers [in the box] against the run. ... You’ve seen glimpses of decent things. We have to continue to get better up front if we want to be efficient.”
Kaneland: Defense dominating
The Knights have given up just 28 points this year, fewest in the Interstate 8. And they’ve done it against teams that can put up points. Washington scored only 14 in Week 1 against the Knights and put up 37 against Metamora. Wauconda has sandwiched 44 and 57-point outings around the seven they scored in Week 2 against Kaneland. And DeKalb had been averaging 21 points per game before losing 42-7 to Kaneland last week.
Credit 11 players who all take pride in their jobs, said coach Michael Thorgesen.
“There’s really no superstar, just kids playing team defense,” Thorgesen said. “Jake Buckley is an anchor on that defensive line, we can move him around a bit for a lot of different looks. And a big difference is the secondary. They can play downhill and tackle well. At the high school level if you can find four defensive backs that you can rely on to make tackles, that’s a big difference maker.”
Thorgesen said the Knights have felt like underdogs all season, and he is trying to get them to have the same mindset against Ottawa (1-2) on Friday.
“Going into this season not a lot of people expected us to start this way, just with our strength of schedule and all the kids we lost to graduation,” Thorgesen said. “Those kids have a chip on their shoulder and it showed for the first three weeks. We don’t want to lose that mentality whatsoever.”
Genoa-Kingston: Defensive line in the spotlight
The Cogs defense kept Oregon out of the end zone last week but still lost 3-0.
Now they face a Dixon team that can air it out but doesn’t neglect its running game either. And facing a challenge like the Dukes is going to come down to line play, said coach Cam Davekos.
And Nick Cantrell, Tyler Atterberry and Brycen Wiegartz have been consistent all year up front for the Cogs, Davekos said.
“We always look for our defensive line to do a good job,” Davekos said. “They keep pressure on the quarterback and in the run game they allow the linebackers to flow freely and make tackles.”
And it’s going to take a leap in play from the offensive line to be competitive, Davekos said.
“We couldn’t block a soul,” Davekos said of the Oregon game. “We hope to keep the defense in front of us and stick to our assignments, get chunk yards here and there. Oregon did a great job of being physical and we just didn’t.”
Hiawatha: Righting the ship with fundamentals
After a 54-0 loss to Polo a week after a 54-0 loss to West Carroll, Hiawatha coach Kenny McPeek said the Hawks have to be more fundamentally sound.
“The biggest thing is we have to sustain our block and stay on our job,” McPeek said. “Instead of blocking for a second we have to stay on it. ... And we’re tackling too high. Any good team, or even average team, you’re not going to make that tackle very often. We’ve got to get down and get feet.”