It’s hard to say exactly who was more surprised by the opening kickoff in Fox’s 49-7 rout of Northwest last week – the Lions or Gavin McGinness.
Normally not the deep man in the return formation, the Fox quarterback said after the Suburban West Conference National Division contest that his 97-yard touchdown return to start things wasn’t exactly in his plans.
“In our film study, they really didn’t kick the ball deep,” said McGinness, who had a big offensive night in addition to the return. “So we weren’t expecting me to get the ball, since we moved our normal (return) guys up. But it came to me, I got a little nervous, caught it, took off and tried to follow my blockers.”
“They haven’t been kicking very deep,” said Fox head coach Brent Tinker. “But Gavin is one of the best athletes in the area, so I was not surprised at all by what he did. My only guess is that they tried to kick it away from Cole (Elwood), who is our best return man.”
Northwest head coach Corey Toenjes said the regular-season finale couldn’t have started any worse. The Lions fell to 5-4 overall and finished 1-3 in the conference.
“The kick didn’t go where we designed it to, and we missed two tackles on the return,” he said. “ But the McGinness kid is a good athlete.”
The Lions continued to learn that fact about the Fox senior throughout the game. McGinness, who rushed for 175 yards on 12 carries and was 3-of-6 passing, added touchdown runs of 22 and 50 yards, sandwiched around a 69-yard scoring run by Elwood.
That led the Warriors to a 28-0 halftime bulge.
Elwood, who carried the ball only five times for 93 yards, added a third-quarter score for the Warriors, as did his younger brother, Carson, on a fumble recovery.
Fox is 8-1 and having one of its best seasons ever. The Warriors (No. 2 seed in Class 5 District 1) have won the National Division three straight seasons and host Seckman (7-2, No. 3) on Nov. 2 in the district tournament semifinals.
Jackson (9-0) maintained the No. 1 seed in District 1 after shutting out Parkway Central 42-0 on Friday.
The Warriors beat the Jaguars 49-0 on Oct. 12. Fox head coach Brent Tinker said he knows a district championship matchup could loom against Jackson.
“Our kids are locked in and focused,” Tinker said. “Not being afraid has been good for us, and we’re confident that we can play with anybody.”
Northwest opens play in the Class 6 District 3 tournament at 7 p.m. Friday on the road against Lindbergh (6-3). The Flyers on the No. 3 seed, and the Lions are the No. 6 seed.
In Fox’s win over Northwest, Carson Elwood, a beast at linebacker with three sacks, may have been as surprised by his score as McGinness was on the opening kickoff.
Carson grabbed a fumbled handoff in mid-air and rambled 35 yards for the score. But the junior, who was anticipating a running play, said it didn’t turn out quite like he had planned.
“The first thing with that play, I was joking around with Bobby (Fox linebacker Bob Neibert),” Carson said. “I told him I was going to strip it, and he was going to come get it. But when it popped up in the air, my first instinct was to grab it, and I didn’t really know what was happening. We were really adjusting to their (offensive) formations all game.”
Neibert, who broke the school’s all-time career rushing mark the previous week against Seckman, added to his total with 70 yards on 11 carries in the win.
Northwest quarterback Seth Fortner, under fire from the Fox defense all night, completed 9 of 22 throws for 110 yards. Running back Tanner Campbell caught five of Fortner’s passes for 58 yards to lead the Lions. Campbell and Jacob Pirkle combined for just 59 yards on 14 carries.
“They make plays, and their offensive line just beat us up,” Toenjes said of the Warriors. “And their defense did a heck of a job.”
Campbell was a little beat up from an elbow injury suffered the previous week against Oakville.
“And we knew we would have a hard time running against them,” Toenjes said. “Seth hit a couple passes early but we couldn’t sustain anything and couldn’t make consecutive plays.”