For this week’s edition of Check the Tape, it was hard to narrow it down to just three plays for Alex and head coach Brad Spencer to dissect after a 76-6 victory. But there were a Luke Lehnen touchdown run, a touchdown pass to DeAngelo Hardy and a Zack Orr tackle that definitely deserved further analysis.
A Luke Lehnen Touchdown Run Fools the Defense
To cap off the first drive of the game, sophomore quarterback Luke Lehnen fakes a handoff (which the entire Elmhurst defense bites on) and finds himself with 30 yards of open space to the end zone.
“Luke did a great job here making his read and he made the correct decision,” said Spencer. “The thing we were focusing on with the offense this week was finishing the first drive after we didn’t do that against Carthage so a great job by the guys up front and a great job by Luke.”
Great Route and a Great Throw
Lehnen makes a second appearance, this time for the second touchdown pass he threw to junior wide receiver DeAngelo hardy. The QB and receiver were perfectly in sync (even if the defense was…not).
“We’ve been working really hard on this concept lately, trying to get the timing right between these two,” Spencer said. “I think Elmhurst might have busted on this play which created a little more space than we would have expected but the guys executed and that’s what we ask of them.”
Zack Orr in the Open Field
The North Central defense didn’t come under much pressure throughout this game, but on the one occasion they did (an attempted fourth down conversion by Elmhurst) sophomore safety Zack Orr made a phenomenal tackle in the open field to stop the Blue Jays a yard short of the line-to-gain.
“Yeah Zack did a great job,” Spencer affirmed. “We were in man coverage and they ran a little pick play, and Zack’s done a great job coming in the last couple of games starting at weak-side safety for us and he’s doing a really good job. He’s still learning and getting better with every single rep, but that was a big play and it was good to see our defense step up on fourth down and make that stop.”
