Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009

Defense helps Lancers hold off Kahoks, win 22-20

Collinsville had ball deep in East territory in game's final minute

BELLEVILLE -- While the Belleville East Lancers offense has been somewhat inconsistent during the 2009 season, the defense has been solid.

On Friday, the Lancers defense came through again.

Getting big plays down the stretch from defensive players Warren Herring, Kayrell Moore and Matt Blacharcyzk, the Lancers stopped Collinsville drives twice in the fourth quarter in a regular-season ending 22-20 win over the Kahoks.

The pass happy Kahoks, getting 391 yards through the air from junior quarterback Austin Hails, moved from their own 4-yard line to inside the Lancers 10-yard line on their final drive, but a pass attempt by junior running back Jaris Wellmaker on a fourth down play with 28 seconds left fell incomplete at the East 6-yard line.

"They had run out of that 'Wildcat' or whatever you want to call it, and executed pretty well," Lancers coach Tim Funk said. "We called a time-out, which I think was a pretty good move, and our kids made a play in the end."

"I think the kid (Wellmaker) looked like he wanted to throw it and saw the receiver was covered. I think he tried to pull it (the ball) back."

The win was the second in a row for the Lancers (7-2) who will now find out tonight who their first round playoff opponents will be when the IHSA releases its first round pairings.

Still not at full strength for what Funk called "various reasons," the Lancers offense used the big play to account for most of its offense.

Senior quarterback Aaron Hampton got the Lancers on the scoreboard with a 38-yard run in the second quarter and junior running back Ryan Herring ran for 163 yards and scores on runs of 65 and 39 yards.

Herring's 39-yard run gave East a 22-14 lead midway in the third quarter but the Kahoks came right back to cut the lead to 22-20 on a 1-yard run by Hails.

But for most of the night, the Lancers offense sputtered.

"Offensively we struggled, and while I'll never make excuses, we were without some of our key players," Funk said. "Collinsville is a very good football team and coach (Mike) Liljegren does a heck of a job with those kids over there."

Liljegren, whose team upset Belleville West and played several other teams close this year, said he was proud of the effort by his team.

"I thought we played hard and gave a great effort. But that's not what these kids are about. They want to win and we've been so close in several games this season," Liljegren said. "On the last play, Jaris (Wellmaker) just simply lost control of the football. I felt bad for the kid."

The Kahoks also had the ball deep in Lancers territory earlier in the fourth quarter, but a Collinsville running back was stripped of the ball by Moore and the ball was recovered by Blacharcyzk.