All hands on deck.
Junior London Leflore and his teammates in South Elgin’s running backs room are firm believers of the philosophy continually espoused over the years by coach Dragan Teonic.
Of course, many of them are also members of the Storm’s strong defense.
“We’re really flexible about it,” Leflore said of the running backs committee, the backbone of South Elgin’s triple-option attack. “We love that everybody on our team can run the ball.
“Everybody’s athletic. First, second, third string, all of us are trusted with the ball.”
Leflore was trusted as the lead back Saturday, carrying a team-high 11 times for 69 yards and one touchdown during a 55-6 rout of Lane Tech in a Class 8A first-round playoff game.
A whopping 16 players ran the ball as South Elgin (9-1) totaled 287 yards on 39 carries, with five players scoring TDs. The Storm limited the Champions (6-4) to 101 yards.
“It’s definitely fun,” said Leflore, who doubles at linebacker. “We try to get everybody in, middle linebacker, outside linebacker, defensive backs. Everybody rotates in.
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“It’s fun playing on both sides.”
South Elgin also had nine players score, including one on defense and one on special teams, in advancing to the second round to meet Warren (8-2), which beat Oswego 39-3.
The Storm finished with 351 yards in recording the 100th career win as a head coach for Teonic, who has had stints at Harper College, Hersey and Larkin as well as South Elgin.
“That’s great, but more importantly, we’re really just trying to push through as a program and get to the next level, which we’ve yet to do,” Teonic said. “We’re unique to be four years in a row and win a playoff game, which is difficult to do. Not many have done it.
“It’s hard to be in this position, so you never take it lightly. We keep knocking on the door and see if we can push through. It’s not about winning the conference. We’re attempting to win the state championship — a really difficult thing to do.”
Junior quarterback Kevon Brooks has kept Teonic’s option offense clicking in the absence of injured starter Jack Ginnan. The Storm scored on all five possessions in the first half.
D’Andre Bartee II, Darrion Thurman, Ari Kravis and Leflore had TD runs of 7, 19, 6 and 5 yards, respectively, as South Elgin took a 41-6 lead. Brooks connected with Francesco Macaluso on a 15-yard TD pass, which featured an outstanding one-handed grab by the sophomore tight end.
Junior defensive back Stewart Williams Jr., who is also the team’s third quarterback, intercepted a pass in the second quarter and returned it 16 yards to set up one of those TDs. He later returned a punt 64 yards for a TD.
“I struggled with catching the punt last week and let one drop,” Williams said. “I made a point to practice it this week.
“I saw it, caught it and had one guy to beat at about the 45. I made him miss and then saw my blockers ahead and just followed them down the field to the end zone.”
Brandon Berrios added a 10-yard TD run and Nicolas Barkho retuned an interception 46 yards to close out the scoring in the third quarter, which featured a running clock.
The Storm don’t have a running back who has reached 500 yards for the season, but eight players have gone for 150 yards or more.
One of those eight is Leflore.
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“It’s unique,” Teonic said. “We switch them around a lot, but they all play defense. You want them on the field as much as possible. This is the only way we know how to roll.”