By Fred Kroner
The Spartans delighted their homecoming crowd on Friday (Oct. 1) with their best defensive performance of the season in a 33-0 win over Bloomington Central Catholic at Dick Duval Field.
SJ-O not only posted its first shutout of the season, but senior Ethan Vanliew returned an interception 100 yards for a touchdown.
Coby Miller rushed for a game-high 178 yards, with 97 of those coming on a third-quarter TD romp.
SJ-O led, 12-0, at halftime.
“We were up 12-0 because of our special teams and defense,” SJ-O coach Shawn Skinner said. “It was nice that Coach (Bob) Glazier (defensive coordinator) was able to get a shutout in his last homecoming.”
Glazier is retiring at season’s end after 34 years on staff.
Quarterback Evan Ingram scored the game’s first touchdown when SJ-O took over on a short field following a snap that went over the head of the BCC punter.
Vanliew almost wasn’t able to be on the field for his heroics.
“On the play before, Isaiah Moore made a phenomenal play, knocking it away, otherwise they would have scored,” Skinner said.
Moore’s play in the secondary set up fourth-and-long for the Saints and enabled Vanliew to be in position for the interception.
“Our defensive backs are playing at a high level,” Skinner said. “Our defense has the attitude that they can score when they get the ball.”
And they have found their way to the end zone multiple times. In previous games, Moore had a pick-six and Miller returned a fumble for a TD.
Against BCC, Tyler Burch and Rowan Musselman picked off passes and Ramsey Primmer recovered a fumble.
The Spartans’ offense did good things in the second half, even when the end result wasn’t a TD.
“We opened the third quarter with an 8-minute drive and to take eight minutes off the clock was important,” Skinner said. “Our offense is continuing to play clean, moving the football and not making critical errors.”
Making the offensive play in Week 6 more impressive is that SJ-O was obligated to make changes on the offensive line. Junior Bryson Helfrich suffered a season-ending ACL injury in Week 5 against Stanford Olympia.
The Spartans shifted tight end Aidan McCorkle to tackle. Peyton Sarver moved from tackle to guard and Jett Morris went from guard to tackle. Spencer Fitch is the other guard.
It resulted in an offense that generated 378 yards of offense against BCC.
“Jett Morris and Conrad Miller (center) are seniors who have done a good job helping those guys,” Skinner said. “Here we are at Week 7 and still playing musical chairs with the offensive line.”
Ingram passed for 63 yards, completing 8 of 17 passes.
Besides Miller and Ingram, other TDs scored by the offense last week were by Justice Wertz and Alex Funk. Wertz finished with 63 yards rushing.
SJ-O (3-3) returns to action on Friday (Oct. 8) at Pontiac, trying to extend its winning streak to four games.
Skinner said the team stayed together in spite of an 0-3 start (to teams which currently have a combined 17-1 record).
“It’s a credit to our kids and the coaching staff that they never got down,” Skinner said. “There was never any panic, just a sense that we will get better.
“There was never a moment where our kids were making excuses or looking backward. We said we won’t be defined by those first three games.”
As for the game at Pontiac, there’s more at stake than the chance to rise above the .500 mark for the season.
“We have never won at Pontiac in the history of the varsity program,” Skinner said. “We have an opportunity to do something no other team has done before.”
