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Champaign Central puts West in hole it can't escape
CHAMPAIGN -- The Normal West High School football team can do many things. | Box scores, schedules, stats What it couldn’t do in its season opener Friday at Tommy Stewart Field against Big 12 Conference foe Champaign Central was erase a multi-touchdown deficit quickly. The result was a 30-10 setback for the Wildcats, whose five-year win streak over the Maroons came to an end. “When you run it, you just can’t get down by more than two touchdowns,” said Normal West coach Darren Hess, whose team gave up 16 third-quarter points. “We don’t have that style of offense where we can come back.” In a battle of marquee running backs, Champaign junior Denzel Stewart topped Normal West senior Darius Bell, 205 yards to 175. The elusive Stewart, who scored on runs of 20 and 60 yards, carried just 13 times compared to 36 for Bell. Linebacker Jordan Shifflett, who had two of Normal West’s 10 tackles for loss, blamed a lack of outside containment for some of Stewart’s yardage. “We need people to go outside and stay outside,” Shifflett said. “We had people not staying outside. He’s agile and bounced outside very easily and made big plays.” Any comeback hopes West may have had were squashed when Bell fumbled late in the third quarter and the host’s Albert Clark returned it 34 yards to end the scoring. “They had a great stunt on,” Hess said. The Wildcats opened the scoring after blocking a punt Champaign attempted from its own 1-foot line. West pushed the center into the path of the punt and Trey Hartema recovered it at the 9-yard line. West quarterback Jordan Jefferson ran the ball in from there and Keith Hitchcock added the conversion kick. He later added a 33-yard field goal to give the Wildcats a 10-7 lead. West, which only managed 37 yards passing, saw its receiving corps hurt when Shauntrell Manney may have broken his leg early in the first period. “That just limited what we could do throwing the ball,” Hess said. Champaign didn’t get rolling until Jordan Johnson returned a punt 50 yards early in the second quarter to set up Stewart’s 20-yard score. “We finally found a way to beat those guys,” said Maroon coach Dave Jacobs, whose team lost to West in overtime last year, 21-14. “You’ve got to play your best to beat them.” Stewart didn’t carry the ball the final 10 minutes, but his damage had been done. “He’s a special talent, there is no question,” Jacobs said. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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