September 14, 2002 12:52 AM
Rocks' homecoming
ends up a waltzBy Mark Nesseler, Dispatch/Argus Sports
editor
The Rock Island Rocks have scored a lot more points than their three overmatched
nonconference football opponents. Yet, the Rocks have a lot more questions than answers
heading into Western Big 6 play.
The Rocks overwhelmed their third straight pre-Western Big 6 foe, dancing past Chicago
Collins 61-0 in a homecoming waltz Friday night at RI's Almquist Field. Still, Rock
Island's coaches, players and fans still don't know if they have the moves to be a hit.
``The problem right now is that I don't know,'' RI coach Vic Boblett said of what
answers he had in regard to his 3-0 Rocks. ``I don't know how good we are, and I don't
know how bad we are. We won't find out until we're challenged.''
That could come next week, with the start of Big 6 play. The Rocks travel to Quincy
next Friday to take on a revitalized Blue Devil team that's 2-1 and rolling behind
200-yards-per-game rusher Alex Douglas.
``Maybe then we'll get a bit more of a feel. At this point, we still have a lot of
question marks,'' Boblett added.
In fact, the romp over Collins added to Boblett's growing conundrum. Instead of trying
to find a wrinkle of a difference between senior quarterbacks Chase Stephens and Tom
DeBroeck, he now has to split hairs between six quality running backs.
``Different ones have different styles,'' shrugged Boblett. ``And we actually now have
seven good running backs. Mike Payton looked good in the fourth quarter,'' piling up 58
yards on six carries. That was RI's second best output, two yards shy of Ricky O'Conner's
63 on three carries.
The Rocks piled up 340 yards on 37 carries, but the most carries among the top six was
Keenan Wright with five. Four of the others had four each. Waylond Ryan had just two, but
both resulted in touchdowns.
Here's the playing-time dispersement decision Boblett faces: Wright averaged 9.2 yards
per carry; O'Conner, 15.6; John Saldana, 12.0; Dillon Smith, 4.3 with a TD; and Calvin
Krakilow, 6.0. He alternated sets of three backs vs. Collins.
As for Ryan, despite his 25-yard average, he wound up as a defensive back in the second
half. ``We're real solid with our defensive starters in the secondary,'' Boblett said,
``but Waylond has a unique talent with his speed. We can't afford having that kind of
speed on the sideline. We want to make sure we have our best 22 on the field.''
Despite the lopsided final, the Rocks were able to keep their top players in the game
until seven minutes remained in the third quarter. The nonstop clock went into effect with
Wright's TD that made it 45-0. After Daniel Payne blocked a punt out of the end zone for
RI's third safety of the season, deep reserves added the last two touchdowns.
-- Bigger blowout for RI sophs: Last week, the RI sophomores dressed a lot of
freshmen who never played. On Friday, they didn't, and could have.
The Rocks got to the speedup rule early in the second quarter and still won on in huge
landslide, 74-0.
Zachary Simpson scored RI's first three TDs, and then added two more in the second
half. Alex Stickel had three TDs and defender Joe Brooks had a rarity of two scores, one
by stealing a handoff and the other by recovering a fumble in the end zone. Freshman
kicker Adam Schneider had a whopping 11 extra-point attempts, converting eight.
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