Football Team Prepares for Tough Season Ahead

When your town's high school football team wins its first two games convincingly— outscoring opponents 94-8 — fans start dreaming about a championship.

That's understandable, especially since the Lemont Indians were Class 6A runner-ups as recently as 2007 and 2008.

But the Indians aren't thinking about the playoffs right now. While one of the team's goals is to qualify for the postseason, right now they're focusing on getting better each week.

"We set the same goals for the program each year," Lemont coach Eric Michaelsen said. "The first one is to get to the playoffs. The second is to win conference. The third is to try to win as many playoff games as you can. You can't think about a championship when there's so much that goes into what class level you end up being in, the health of the team and who you draw. We know there's a lot that goes into that."

Lemont (2-0) won its season opener on Aug. 27 with a 52-0 victory over Chicago Little Village, as seven players found the end zone. Last week, the Indians hammered Riverside-Brookfield 42-8.

"I was real happy in the kids' effort in Week 2," Michaelsen said. "I challenged them to come out and play with some intensity and play with some intelligence and emotion, and I thought they did that.

"That being said, there were still plenty of mistakes and stuff to work and improve on."

Quarterback Mike Medwed has blasted off to a fantastic start. He's already thrown four touchdown passes and rushed for a score. Concerns with the offensive line have dissipated with the emergence of sophomores Jim McAuliffe and Ethan Pocic, junior Travis Layer, right tackle Jared Bruns and Dennis McAuliffe.

"The offensive line has been great," Medwed said. "Everyone thinks because we have two young sophomores that there's going to be trouble, but they've all been great."

The Indians have received a nice lift from Jack Forrest in the backfield, while they boast a group of talented and experienced receivers, including Trevor Murphy, Lee Taylor and Josh Ferry (7 TD receptions in 2009).

"Ever since we started working in the winter we knew we'd have a good receiving core, which would open up the run game for us," Medwed said. "We've got great chemistry, which really helps a lot when you know someone this well. I've known guys like Josh (Ferry) since when we first started playing when we were 6 years old."

Defensively, the Indians still have not allowed any points. The only touchdown the Indians surrendered came on a fumble return last week.

Linebacker Kyle Krull and strong safety Clayron Fejedelem lead the way for the Indians. Both have also scored touchdowns this season as Krull recovered a fumble in Week 1 and took it in, while Fejedelem had a kickoff return in Week 2.

"We have a lot to live up to this year, and we just want to go out and keep getting better," Fejedelem said. "We're all friends who are working hard. Our coaches have prepared us so well. They put in all the time outside of school and lay it all out for us."

With a solid group of coaches, the Indians won't let the two lopsided victories go to their heads. They can't afford to with just three returning starters on each side of the ball and with their next four opponents a combined 7-1, including a perennially gritty Richards team on Friday.

"I think we've played (Richards) four times," Michaelsen said. "We killed them once, they killed us once and the other two went down to like the last play. I would guess it'll be another one that comes down to the last play."