FREEPORT – Fasten your seatbelts: The NIC-10 has officially joined the 21st century.
As Ohio State keeps finding out in the BCS title game, modern offenses can score on any play. And with any player.
That’s now how it was done for 70 years in the NIC-10, even more staid than the Big Ten. But that’s how it’s done now.
“The conference used to be run, run, run,” Harlem assistant coach Rich Infusino said. “But the trends are changing.”
It’s not just Freeport and Harlem – Boylan and Belvidere run effective spread offenses, too – but no one makes it more thrilling than the Pretzels and Huskies.
“This is the way it’s supposed to be,” Freeport’s Wes Gastel said after catching four touchdown passes in Friday’s 42-30 loss to Harlem.
“You’re supposed to get it out quick and let the receivers make plays.”
The two teams played such a thriller in the Pretzel Bowl that Freeport wasn’t even safe after kicking a field goal with 37.9 seconds left in the half. Harlem almost padded its 21-17 lead, but fell 5 yards and a half-second short, as NFL-sized tight end Casey Beck was gang tackled at the 5 as time expired.
“I kept forgetting he was that tall,” Gastel, also an all-conference defensive back, said of the 6-foot-7 Beck, who caught two TD passes. “He’d just jump over me.”
Gastel and Kevin Flack, who now has 21 touchdown passes on the season, one shy of the NIC-10 record, were just as hard for Harlem to stop.
“Neither team could relax for a second,” Harlem coach Jim Morrow said. “We knew it was going to be a barn-burner, and it very much lived up to its billing.”
The best part was, it was nothing unusual.
“Wes did his usual thing and so did Kevin,” Freeport coach Terry Werntz said.
Actually, Flack, for all his brilliance, didn’t even live up to his average. He completed 14 of 34 passes for 247 yards.
And yet he was spectacular. So was Gastel. And Tony Thompson (109 yards on 14 carries). And so was Harlem’s Beck, Keenan Kellett (11 of 15 for 169 yards) and Keith Purifoy (202 yards on 14 carries).
All were shining stars. And all were put in positions to showcase their unique talents.
Welcome to the new NIC-10. It’s a blast.
“Our offense can make a big play any time,” Flack said. “It’s a fun game.”
It’s more than fun. It’s quality.
“It’s good football,” Flack continued. “People like watching it. We don’t like seeing our defense get run over, but it’s good fun.”
- Matt Trowbridge, rrstar.com
