Oct. 04--The scores look pretty much the same lately for Homewood-Flossmoor, the consensus No. 1 team in Illinois, with four straight running-clock games.
But the performances have varied. Saturday's 44-6 Southwest Suburban Blue romp past host Joliet West ranks as one of the Vikings' better efforts of the season for a couple reasons.
For one, it came against an opponent in Joliet West (3-3, 1-3) that made the playoffs last year and, with games left against a pair of one-win teams (Stagg and Lockport), has a realistic path back to the postseason.
And after failing to score in the first quarter last week against Lockport, H-F (6-0, 4-0) had its quick-strike capability on display once again. It was 23-0 after one quarter and 44-0 at the half, thanks to five scoring plays of at least 22 yards.
"We came off the bus and played a lot better than last week," said quarterback Bryce Gray, who threw for 207 yards and three touchdowns, all in the first half.
"In games likes this, we've just got to execute, work through the little things and prepare for weeks like next week."
Ah, next week. That would be the game of the year in the SWSC Blue, when H-F hosts No. 12 Lincoln-Way East (5-1, 4-0). Last year, the Vikings opened a 20-0 first-quarter lead before the Griffins stormed back for a 43-40 win.
"We had (the East) game marked on the calendar, but we knew we had to take it week by week," Gray said. "Last year, us losing to Lincoln-Way East was the biggest game of our season. That's when we realized we weren't as good as we thought we were yet."
The Vikings were plenty good on both sides of the ball Saturday. They started with a 12-play, 57-yard touchdown drive capped by Deante Harley-Hampton's 4-yard touchdown run.
Then came a pair of one-play drives: Devonte Harley-Hampton's 44-yard TD run and Gray's 82-yard scoring pass to Deante Harley-Hampton.
Those all happened in the first quarter; in the second came Gray's 22- and 30-yard TD passes to Kendric Pryor as well as a 39-yard touchdown run by backup running back Tyler Nutall.
The other story line was another dominant effort by H-F's defense, which limited West to 30 yards and had four sacks in the first half. After giving up 29 points to Stevenson in Week 2, H-F defenders have allowed 12 in the past four weeks.
"I've been extremely happy with where they've come from since the Stevenson game," H-F coach Craig Buzea said. "They've improved leaps and bounds."
Next up is the biggest test since Stevenson, against an opponent Gray and his teammates will have no trouble getting up for.
"That one still hurts," he said. "We know what happened last year. We know the type of team they are. We know they're going to play us as hard as they can."
