Naperville upends Lincolnway
By Dave Surico
Two kinds of prep, one Naperville's team concept, the other its game plan, led the Warriors to a 16-12 upset win over Lincolnway in the first round of the Tier 1 playoffs Friday in Frankfort.
The first part of Naperville's preparation came in the form of the scouting the coaching staff did at the Midwest Championships last weekend in Elkhart, Ind.
"We noticed what they did with their pack people was commit four to the ruck and then get four of their forwards out in the back line," said coach Doug Andrews. "When they get the ball out they get into a ruck on that side of the field. Those four forwards don't join them, they just get in the back line.
"It created a lot of overloads. What we tried to accomplish tonight was split our forwards in a defensive mode to cover that. The first try of the game they scored on exactly the kind of overload they've been scoring on every other team all year long.
"After yelling at the kids in the try zone on the point after about communicating and marking up. We actually did what we wanted to do. We ... shut them down."
After Lincolnway's try and conversion in the fifth minute, Naperville fought back. A Bryan Kanzler penalty kick in the 10th minute preceded a 50-meter breakaway run from outside center Pat Caufield in the 25th minute. Kanzler's conversion gave the Warriors a 10-7 lead.
A lapse led Naperville to give up field position at its 10-meter line. Lincolnway capitalized at the 27th minute for a 12-10 lead that held up at halftime.
In the 42nd minute Kanzler worked his magic again with a 30-yard penalty for a 13-12 lead, and finished five minutes later with a 22-yard kick to end the scoring.
"After that we played more conservatively and played the wind, giving them the long field all the time," Andrews said.
The second-seeded hosts out of the East Division were stymied the rest of the way.
"Even though we didn't tackle like we wanted, we had enough bodies out there so that even when they broke one they had two or three other people they had to go through," said Andrews.
Naperville completed its team concept to a T. It's called PREP, which is short for: position; react; execute; and position.
"We were in the position to play rugby," said Andrews. "It shut them down from doing what they wanted to do."
