Balanced Oswego Attack Sinks Plainfield North

It’s going to be a busy night at the West household.

After Friday night’s 42-21 win over Southwest Prairie Conference rival , Oswego quarterback Ryan West exclaimed, “I owe the O-line pizza!!”

Turns out, West  had made a pledge before the season that if he wasn’t sacked during a game, he would buy his offensive linemen pizza. He wasn’t sacked Friday night, so get ready for a feast.

“We’ll just order it at my house,” West said after completing 21 of 29 passes for 263 yards and two touchdowns. “My mom makes real good chocolate chip cookies, so she will have to do that, too.”

Mrs. West might want to make some extra special cookies for running back Mickeel Stewart, who helped offset her son’s passing with 148 rushing yards on 19 carries. He scored three times, once on a 29-yard run and once on a 5-yarder, and once on a 7-yard pass.

“When we get a running game going, it makes things easier,” West said. “Mickeel grew up tonight and we are going to need that the rest of the season.”

Stewart got the scoring started for Oswego (4-2, 4-0) when he burst through the middle of the defense for a 29-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. On the first play of the second quarter, (3-3, 2-2) tied it up with a 1-yard run by Jay Roberts (26 carries, 117 yards).

The Tigers took a brief lead later in the quarter when quarterback Kurt Palandech ran for a 3-yard score.

Oswego answered with West’s 7-yard TD pass to Stewart, and took a 21-14 lead into halftime when West hit Jack Kwiatkowski (seven catches, 96 yards) for a 27-yard score.

Oswego took the second-half kickoff and drove 80 yards, capped by a 2-yard score by Josh Mapalo. Stewart’s 5-yard TD run later in the third quarter put Oswego ahead 35-14.

answered with a 1-yard plunge by Roberts, but Oswego ended the scoring on a 1-yard sneak by West in the fourth quarter.

“This was probably our best all-around game of the year,” Oswego coach Dave Keely said. “The offensive line did a good job opening holes. When they are dropping seven or eight guys into coverage, we have to be able to run the ball. When they had to honor the run, Ryan did a good job with his reads and the receivers got open and caught the ball. And, defensively, we played real well.”

“We have to make the plays when they are in front of us,” North coach Tim Kane said. “We ran into a good offense, but we have to make tackles, too. And, we had some plays on offense that we need to execute better.”