[Preview of this week’s article in Inside—Booster.]
By Jack Lydon
Blake Perkins and his Lane Tech Champion lit ‘em up Friday evening defeating the Amundsen Vikings 27-0 at Lane Stadium. The Champions shifted their passing game into high gear scoring their four touchdowns through the air on passes of eight yards, eleven yards, thirty-four yards and thirty-nine yards.
“[Amundsen] really game planned on stopping our run game because we ran so well last week against Whitney [Young]. We really just took what was there. Passing game was there so we leaned on the pass tonight,” said Lane Tech head coach Deshon Conley.
If the Vikings focused on stopping the Champions run game that produced the 35-7 shellacking of Whitney Young last Friday, then the Champions would throw this Friday. And that they did.
Senior quarterback Blake Perkins opened the scoring on the first play of the second quarter with an eight-yard touchdown pass to his twin brother wide-receiver Britton Perkins.
Next came a jump ball pass to senior wide-receiver Taylor Clay in the right corner of the endzone where Clay wrestled the ball out of the hands of the Amundsen defender for the second touchdown. PAT no good. 13-0 Champions.
Champions scored again with 51.8 seconds left in the half on a thirty-four yard strike up the sideline from Perkins to junior wide-receiver Aiden Andrich and added a two-point conversion to make it 21-0 at the half.
Champions closed out the scoring on another deep ball. This time again to Taylor Clay who continued his acrobatic receiving night by batting the ball back to himself for the reception and then continued down the sideline for the score.
“I was feeling it. All week we have been preparing for this. The coaches gave us good plays. We prepared well for this game. Watched hours and hours of film. I don’t like Amundsen much. We own the North now. They can’t say that anymore,” Perkins said after the game.
“Blake’s a rhythm guy. Since the Bulls [Prep] game, he’s found his rhythm as a quarterback. We don’t pass as much as I would like. Today he made soon really, really, really go throws,” Conley said of his senior quarterback.
It seems for strange but despite the lopsided score the game felt pretty close, in the first half at least. The Vikings were able to move the ball. Amundsen quarterback Jake Seifert’s passes were on time and on target. They moved the ball in chunks on the ground and in the air. They just were not able to put the ball in the endzone. At one point in the third quarter, the Vikings had three tries to score from inside the two-yard line.
It was not to be. The Champions stout defense would not allow it. They stuffed two runs up the middle and a pass in the right flat. It was not Amundsen’s day.
“We graduated twenty starters last year and starting over this year with guys who don’t have a lot of varsity experience. We know that we had to get better as the year progressed. Unfortunately, it hasn’t gone our way the past six games,” said Amundsen coach Nick Olson.
The Amundsen Vikings are having a rough go this season. They are not actually playing that poorly. It seems at times like it’s one good play and then two bad ones; dropped pass or a penalty. They are not manufacturing any luck—just adversity.
Olson was a little introspective after the game.
“I have never been in this situation in my coaching career. I’ve never had this kind of adversity with a six-game skid. I have only known success here at Amundsen. So this is also a chance for me to grow as a coach and figure out what I can do to help them right the ship,” added Olson
“My guys don’t have any quit in them. I am very proud that we are a neighborhood school. We are not selective enrollment. We don’t have 5,000 kids to pick from. And we are fielding an 89-man roster with a neighborhood school.”
