Movie Time Helps Warriors Focus

The Deerfield High School football team will get some movie time Saturday but it will not be for entertainment.

The Warriors did a lot of things right in their 35-7 loss Friday to the state’s second ranked team, Maine South, making movie time educational. They will be learning what to improve before the Waukegan Bulldogs arrive at Adams Field at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

“What do you mean three quarters, how about four quarters?” said after the game when asked about his team’s performance Friday after it kept the score close for the first three periods. “I don’t care what’s on the scoreboard.”

The Warriors made a number of defensive stops including wrapping up Northwestern bound Hawk quarterback Matt Alviti despite the fact Maine South was able to move the ball. On offense Deerfield stuck to its offensive style and was able to advance.

“The coaches did their job and the players executed,” Winiecki said. “I tell them (the players) to take a day to celebrate a win or mourn a loss.” After that it is movie time. “We’ll look at the film; see what we did right and what we did wrong. Then we’ll get ready for Waukegan.”

One of the things that went right was the running and leadership of fullback Alec Frank. He rushed for 103 yards against the Hawks including a 35-yard burst that put the Warriors in a position to score a second touchdown and send the game into halftime tied.

“The offensive line really opened things up,” Frank said of that particular run.

For Winiecki, he sees Frank as the linchpin of the Warrior attack. “Our offense starts with the fullback,” Winiecki said. “When we get the fullback going things start to happen.”

One of the things the basic offense opens up is the power formation where . On Deerfield’s touchdown drive, he ran for a critical first down and caught a pass from Matt Kollada to give the Warriors first and goal.

“I love that formation,” Balder said. He also gave credit to the members of the offensive line for its success. “They made it easy for me,” he said of the first down.

With Kollada, Frank, Brett Freedberg and Alex Williams running with the ball most on most Warrior plays, a 24-yard power formation pass from Kollada to Balder advanced the ball to the Maine South six yard line on the last play of the first quarter. Balder ran the ball on next three plays to reach the end zone and tie the game, 7-7.

“I was really glad we called that play,” Balder said. “It worked well against a really tough opponent.”

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