By Mark Gregory
@Hear_The_Beard
Jaxson Aubry
Three games into its first season in the Southwest Prairie Conference, Joliet West may not have the record it wants – but the Tigers have also played the top two teams in the league in 3-0 Oswego and 3-0 Oswego East.
The Panthers remained unbeaten on the season with a 7-3 win over West Saturday at Klootwyk Field on Joliet’s west side.
“I hate losing, especially in these tight games, but we are right there,” said West coach Jason Aubry. “We are very close. Our defense again stepped up and played very, very well. Offensively, we started to move the ball a little bit and then we had errors. I told them about our schedule – these are great teams we are playing. Oswego East, look at what they are doing, they are 3-0 right now. But it is hard as a kid to understand that and get through that. Heck, it’s tough for me.
“We understand going through the Oswegos, Minooka, Plainfield North, they are going to be dog fights and we came up short in this one. I respect (Oswego) coach (Brian) Cooney. He is a great coach and has been doing great stuff for a tradition rich program. This was a great game and this is what we want – great games. Unfortunately, we are on the other side of it.”
The Panthers struck first in the game, scoring the lone touchdown of the game with 1 minute, 54 seconds left in the first quarter when Anthony Grimes punched the ball in from 1-yard out to make the game 7-0.
West scored in the closing seconds of the first half when Matthew Prieboy booted a 36-yard field goal with 16.4 seconds left in the second quarter.
That was all the scoring that would take place in the game.
West had several chances during the second half – forcing three turnovers and moved the ball well between the 20-yard lines, but could not score.
“In the first half, we took 90 seconds to go down the field and put the ball through the uprights,” Aubry said. “In the second half, our guys came out and started moving the ball a little bit here and there, but we couldn’t close it out. We have a fairly young offense. Kevon Dorris made a couple of really nice catches and then there were a few times the ball just bounced off his hands. We have young guys, but there is a time in a season where you can’t blame it on young guys anymore. Yeah, they are sophomores, but at this point in the season, we should be rolling and I think we are getting to that point. We have a good stretch of teams that we will be able to good things with.”
The Tigers will look to get the running game back on track, while keeping the stout defense and passing attack.
Against Oswego, sophomore quarterback Jaxson Aubry completed 14-of-36 passes for 147 yards and a pair of interceptions.
Dorris caught four passes for 57 yards.
“(Jaxson) is doing a great job and we knew coming in that he would still make mistakes, but we were willing to live with it and move forward with it because those guys are our future,” Jason Aubry said of his son. “He is putting the ball in the right spot. He and Johnny (Holman) have a really good connection and I wish they could have hooked up a few more times. He has a great relationship with all the receivers. They love each other and they play for each other. He is doing what we asked. He is maturing quickly and he understands what is going on. The maturity that I see from him is that he can come over to the sideline and he can tell (offensive coordinator) coach (Mark) Peterson what is going on and what he sees.”