Football | Argonauts run past Bloom

By Mike Walsh
Correspondent

Neither a burst of late-summer heat nor a good Bloom team was going to prevent Steve Holmes from properly performing his job last Saturday afternoon at Sarff Field in Chicago Heights.

In helping visiting Argo to a 23-14 nonconference victory over the Blazing Trojans, the junior running back amassed 176 yards on 36 attempts, while scoring on runs of 1 and 19 yards.

“This was a game of heat and we showed a bunch of fight,” Argo head coach Phil Rossberg said. “Steve wanted the ball and he wanted to win. He’s the ultimate competitor and that’s why the kids follow him. If you get the ball 36 times in 88-degree heat, that tells you something about him.”

Holmes had ample help in the Argonauts improving to 2-0. The offensive line, anchored by 6-foot-2, 270-pound senior right tackle Leo Marquez and senior center Robert Jendral provided sufficient running room for Holmes and the ground game.

“Our offensive line was really good,” Rossberg said. “We were literally grinding the ball on [Bloom] all the time. It was big on big and just moving bodies. When you can chew up three, four or six yards a carry, you control the game. These kids played their butts off.”

Senior quarterback Ryan Edwards carried 15 times for 89 yards and scored on a 3-yard run. Edwards completed four passes in 10 tries for 49 yards.

Senior cornerback Beandre Dugans intercepted a pair of passes, and junior middle linebacker Maciej Jarosz (8 tackles) and senior defensive end Jacob Fries (2 tackles for loss) also contributed.

“Maciej’s probably our strongest player,” Rossberg said. “He’s a beast.”

Up 20-14 with one minute to play in the fourth quarter, Argo secured the decision as Kacper Lobas drilled a 24-yard field goal to set the final margin.

“Credit to Bloom,” Rossberg said. “They fought us in the second half. We were up 13-0 and they hit us in the mouth a little bit.

“Our goal is to become playoff eligible. Our motto this week was ‘Who are we?’ and ‘What are we about?’ We showed a lot of good things today and we have some things we need to clean up. We had more penalties than we would have liked because the kids were a little hyper in the beginning, but they calmed down and settled down a little bit.”