Vandercook Lake High School football player C.J. Adams, center, looks for running room against Addison High School at home on Friday. Photo by Jeff Steers, JTV Sports.
By Jeff Steers
JTV Sports
Addison High School lineman Nicholas Justus is the ring leader in an offensive line that in churning up defenses in the Cascades Conference this season.
Next week Justus and the Panthers will have a chance to show everyone how good they are.
Addison won its fifth consecutive game – all Cascades Conference contests – improving to 5-1 on the season. The Panthers are 5-0 in the conference following a 60-6 drubbing at Vandercook Lake on Friday.
Addison will face undefeated Grass Lake at home next Friday for a chance at a conference title.
Five weeks ago, players and coaches would have laughed at the idea of playing for a league title. The Panthers were defeated by Britton-Deerfield to open the season.
“Grass Lake is going to be a physical game … it is a matter of who punches who in the mouth first,” Justus said. “Scoring a lot of points is a matter everyone playing for one another.”
Justus is part of a senior class who was introduced to the Wing T offense in seventh grade. It is the only offense they have ran for the past six seasons since Coach Josh Lindeman took over the program.
Justus is in charge of calling all of the assignments for linemen once they hit the line of scrimmage.
“It is a matter of calling double teams and blocking assignments,” Justus said. “Sometimes you just point at players.”
He must have made all the right calls against the Jayhawks. The Panthers scored 32 points in the first quarter at Vandercook Lake with two touchdowns by Nathan Rodlund, and scores Frederick Bills and Brendan Ford. Rodlund scored another score to start the second quarter and Dylan Malinowski scored with under three minutes left in the first half for a 46-0 halftime lead for Addison.
Bills scored his second touchdown of the game on a 7-yard run and a 2-point conversion to begin the third quarter. The Panthers led 54-0 leading to a super running clock – the clock is not stopped due to penalties or timeouts.
Vandercook Lake running back Kaden DuBois stopped that with a 56-yard touchdown run on the next play from scrimmage for the Jayhawks.
Addison finished the scoring on a 52-yard touchdown run by Matthew Boorman in the fourth quarter.
Rodlund finished with 130 rushing yards on only five carries.
Defensively, Noah Springer intercepted a pass and the Addison defense sacked the Vandercook Lake quarterback six times in the first half.
For Vandercook, David Porras, Cameron Woods, and DuBois each recorded six tackles in the contest.
Addison will host Grass Lake next Friday for a 7 p.m. in a Cascade Conference showdown.
Vandercook will host East Jackson Friday beginning at 7 p.m. in a battle of winless teams.
