Lane Smothers TF South 10-6

By Jack Lydon

 Lane Tech defeated Thornton Fractional South 10-6 on Friday evening at Lane Stadium. Lane head coach Dedrick Dewalt switched offensive styles this season moving to a wing T offense in order to take advantage of the strength of his roster—big lineman and quality running backs—which carried the day for the Champions.

A huge crowd at Lane Stadium including two student sections, one at each end of the field, saw the Champions march the ball toward the north endzone ball at the end of the first quarter for a 22-yard field goal by Mudgim Kreho, senior kicker and varsity soccer player from West Rogers Park.

The signature play of the game and the new offense had to be a second quarter run by Lane’s senior running back #9 Yiannis Katsogridakis. Katsogirdakis took a simple dive up the middle smashing his way forward for ten or so yards. He appeared to be stopped by five or six TF South Red Wolves but refused to go down. Literally dragging and carrying the group for an additional twelve yards before eventually collapsing under the weight of the defenders.

“Our kids came in thinking, ‘Hey it’s an easy game. We won by 20 last year.’ We tried to tell them, they pound the ball. They come off tackle. They’ve got good backs. If you don’t tackle them, they are going to go for five yards. If you put them in 3rd and short or 4th and short, they are going to win the game,” said TF South head coach Bob Padjen.

“You gotta stop the [wing T offense] by having linebackers that can read the guards. When the guard and tackle pull, they have to [go] with them. Our guys weren’t doing that in the first half. They were watching the backfield action. You can’t watch the backfield action. And our guys were.”

“That’s our Wing T Offense. Last season we had a bunch of receivers that we could throw the ball around to. This year, our strength is our running backs and our offensive line. So we switched up our offense a little bit to feature our strength. We are going to ride those big boys all season,” said Lane Tech’s third-year head coach Dedrick Dewalt.

A Wing T Offense takes a lot of trust, a team cannot make mistakes, one cannot have negative plays. The Campions didn’t.

“It’s something that we rep every day in practice. We preach no turnovers, no penalties that get us off schedule. With this offense, you have to stay on schedule. Three or four yards a carry. We won this game tonight because were able to control the ball and keep their offense off the field,” Dewalt continued. 

Leading 3-0 at the half, Lane picked up where they left off when play resumed. On the strength of repeated carries by Lane’s powerful senior running back Phineas “Finn” Merrill, the Campions marched down the field. Katsogridakis capped the drive with a two-yard touchdown making the score 10-0.

Even so, the Red Wolves were not done. After a penalty marred third quarter, Padjen rallied his crimson canines. Opening up the offense, the Red Wolves marched down toward the south endzone with repeated passes in the flat. South’s Seneca Smith scored with 9:52 left in the fourth on a four-yard run making the score 10-6. PAT failed.

Lane’s ball control scheme took time off the clock until finally giving that ball back to Red Wolves with plenty of time on the clock for a go-ahead score. South moved the ball up the field with the help of some penalties by Lane.

With 33 seconds to play, Lane’s senior linebacker Zach Shashoua picked off a pass in the flat that have been give the Champions fits throughout the fourth quarter to seal the victory.

The casual football fan might not appreciate the finer aspects of a wing T offense in action. Few passes, not much scoring but run faithfully by a coaching staff and executed by a disciplined offensive group with a stingy defense, it’s beauty to behold. This year’s newly created CPS Red-North better study up and hit weight room. Lane is going to put them to the test.

Interestingly, both Lane Tech and TF South officially adopted new team names early this year. Lane dropped “Indians” several years ago and just this year adopted “Champions.” TF South, formerly the “Rebels,” are going with “Red Wolves” starting this school year.

Lane takes on Hubbard next Saturday at noon at Lane Stadium before staring conference play the following week.

TF South looks to turn around their 0-2 season start against archrival TF North.

At Wrigley Field for the CPS Baseball City Championship Game

I had the good fortune to cover the Lane v. Brooks CPS City Championship on Monday at Wrigley Field. I was in the photo well adjacent, really just part of the Cubs dugout. Very cool.

My article about the game which appears in today’s Inside Booster, Skyline and News Star and is also posted on this blog. I posted my photos from the game there. Many of the photos are unremarkable but I want to put them up so players and coaches might see themselves and others can get a better feeling for the action.

I parked for free in the Cubs “Camry Lot” on Grace. By chance, Quinn Harris and Kirsten Stickney pulled in behind me. Quinn and Kirsten are two of the best photographers anywhere. I have been lucky enough to get to know them some from shooting high school sports over the past few years. I have learned a great deal from them. They are wonderful people eager to help me. I greatly appreciate that.

Quinn takes the most beautifully exposed, colored and composed photos one will see anywhere. Kirsten’s gift for the reaction shot is unequaled. I try to get those shots but never come close to here level. Being there with them made it all the more special for me. Quinn took Kristen and I on a little tour of Wrigley and where to get the best shots. He shots at Wrigley quite a bit.

After the game, I was sitting at a table in the dugout working on my story and Pearl Jam’s “Someday We’ll Go All the Way” song come over the sound system. I got a little choked up.

I have known for some time that it is not advisable to both a photograph and report on the same game. When I started this amateur sports coverage stuff for Patrick Boylan and Mike Foucher’s Center Square Journal eleven years ago, I learned that if I try to do both, I do both poorly. I had to choose one or the other. I choose photography because I like it more. I am better at it than writing.

But I was at Wrigley to do a job. And so I did. I felt like a real working reporter. Frankly, it’s not something I are really up to. My wordsmithing could use plenty of help. I write these articles at the expense of my vanity, because there just isn’t enough reporting on high school sports out there. Michael O’Brien and Mike Clark can’t be everywhere.

As excited as I was to be shooting at Wrigley Field, I knew I really did not have the proper equipment to shoot a baseball game at a major league ball park. One really needs a 400mm/f 2.8 lens. My 7D with the 300mm lens is roughly that equivalent but the quality is greatly reduced—basically a poor man’s rig for the job. But that what I have, so I used it to some effect. I also have a 1Dx so its not like I don’t have good enough stuff. My failings as a photographer are not for want of good equipment. It’s just more suited to basketball.

This day, I concentrated on writing the article for Inside Publications. Throughout the game I kept asking myself, “what is the story of the game?” It didn’t take long to see that the story was how Lane Tech’s junior pitcher, Josh Katz, to over the game.

I cannot overstate how impressed I am with the poise of this young man. He is either 16 or 17 years old and yet he took the mound at Wrigley Field like a seasoned major league veteran and retired the first six batters he faced—1, 2, 3—in the first two innings.

When I spoke to him after the game, I could see just how genuinely excited and happy he was just to be playing at Wrigley Field. He did what he could to take it all in. After the game, I got some shots of him walking out into the infield in the direction of the bleachers just to soak it in.

In my questions, I brought it all back to baseball asking about what pitches he was throwing. He seemed even more excited talking about how his two-seamer was riding in on the hands of the Brooks batters.

Baseball is such a beautiful game played on the grass field between one's ears. Josh Katz gets it. His catcher Zach Shashoua gets it. Lane Tech manager Sean Freeman gets it. The whole Lane Tech Baseball Team, all 500 of them, get it.

I’m not Frank Deford or Rick Telander writing eloquently about the majesty of baseball. But I sure experienced the majesty of the game, our national pastime, at Wrigley Field on Monday. Truly a wonderful experience.

Lane Tech Defeats Brooks 2-1 at Wrigley Field to Win CPS City Baseball Championship

By Jack Lydon

The Lane Tech baseball team won the CPS city baseball championship 2-1 over Brooks Eagles Monday afternoon at Wrigley Field. 

The win came on the strength of an impressive four-hit, one run pitching performance by Lane Tech junior right-handed pitcher Josh Katz (6-0), who’s final win was for the championship over the Eagles.

But the game was not without some drama in the top of the seventh inning. 

Katz only had one earlier jam, in the top of the third, but he came through it unscathed. 

Taking a 2-0 lead into the final inning, Katz took the mound approaching a 100 pitches. 

The first two batters struck well hit singles up the middle. 

“I thought it might be the end after those two hits,” Katz said after the game. “I was just kind of trusting my stuff, being relentless, trusting my defense knowing that I have the best guys in the entire city behind me. So just being able to throw strikes, pound the zone, trust what I have done throughout the season.” 

Sun Times sports reporter Mike Clark asked Josh, “How many more pitches did you have left [at the end]?

“About five maybe, not many before we were going to have to go the bullpen,” Josh responded.

“It felt good to close that game out after going seven innings. To be able to win City, especially at Wrigley Field, it feels great.”

Katz was channeling his inner Kyle Hendricks—cool as a cucumber—coming off the Wrigley Field pitcher’s mound after setting Brooks down 1-2-3 in the first two innings.

“I was getting in my groove. I started feeling my stride and then I just continued to tell myself to throw strikes and trust my defense. That’s kind of all it is at a point, just throwing strikes and doing what I do.”

“I was mostly working the fast ball especially in the later innings. Just to be able to trust that. Today, I went with the two seam just to be able to jam their hitters.” 

Lane Baseball Team coach Sean Freeman left Katz in after the first two hitters reached in the seventh with a slender two run lead. 

“He had been throwing lights out all day, he’s been lights out for us in crunch time all year, so I had nothing but faith. We had a quite conversation when they had two guys on if we wanted to go [to the pen]. But I just told our pitching coach that it’s [Josh’s] game to lose. I have all the faith in the world in him. He has had multiple big moments throughout the year at the end of the game and he has always come through.” 

And that he did, after giving up one run, Katz got the last two batters out, and now the Lane Tech team is City Champs. 

Lane junior catcher Zach Shashoua said, “We’ve been there before. I have been playing with Josh since I was five. He’s got a fastball, a slider, a two seamer, a curveball and a change. The two seam was looking really nice today. He’s just always throwing strikes since he’s got the velocity. He found the zone, and we’re City champs.”

Lane starts IHSA 4A playoffs on Thursday as the five seed in the Glenbrook North Regional. Lane comes into the playoffs ranked 30th among 4A teams in Max Preps rankings. Don’t count out the Baseball Team especially with big time performances like today’s from Josh Katz.