Graham Schwab entered his senior season as a known commodity for Oswego.
Last year as a fullback. Schwab proved that he could run the ball — especially in those tough, short-yardage situations — catch the ball and deliver crunching blocks to spring the Panthers’ lead running backs on their way to a second-place finish in the Class 8A state playoffs.
In a tight Southwest Prairie West game Friday at Yorkville, Schwab unveiled yet another talent, throwing a key touchdown pass to quarterback Drew Kleinhans on a halfback option play.
“That was his athleticism showing up,” Oswego coach Brian Cooney said. “We’ve practiced that for a month, I swear. I told the offensive guys, ‘Why do you even bring it? You’re never gonna call it. You don’t have the minerals to call it.’
“Sure enough, they did and it worked out.”
Did it ever.
The Panthers were trailing 21-20 midway through the third quarter when Schwab’s 14-yard TD pass gave them the lead for good in a 44-21 victory.
Schwab, who looks the part at 6-foot-2 and 208 pounds, had TD runs of 3 and 1 yards in the first half of a 14-14 tie. He finished with 21 carries for a game-high 84 yards rushing, replacing injured junior running back Ammar Banire in the lead role for a second straight week.
“His toughness has been something,” Cooney said of Schwab. “He hasn’t flinched since Ammar hasn’t been available. He’s just stone cold. It looks a little bit different with him in there.
“But points are points and wins are wins. He’s playing as hard as he possibly can.”
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A string of four straight turnovers by the defense — interceptions by senior cornerback Jake Walsh, senior linebacker Cam Loghmani and two straight fumble recoveries by senior linebacker Caden Cooney — sparked a run of 20 unanswered points for the Panthers (5-1, 2-1).
Loghmani returned his interception of a shovel pass 27 yards for a pick six.
“Cashing in on turnovers will do it,” Cooney said. “We haven’t been opportunistic. We came into this week at zero differential, forcing six turnovers and giving up six, which is strange for us.”
Junior quarterback Max Delgado, who passed for 181 yards, actually gave Yorkville (3-3, 0-3) a 21-14 lead with TD passes of 74, 19 and 40 yards to junior running back Brock Janeczko, senior running back Gavin Geegan and senior wide receiver Joel Castillo, respectively.
“Oswego is a great team, great program,” Yorkville coach Dan McGuire said. “It’s a measuring stick for us. I put us in bad positions and we turned the ball over, and I just didn’t do a good enough job in the second half.”
Schwab, a three-sport athlete who also plays basketball and baseball, knew his passing chance would be coming if offensive coordinator Ben Kleinhans, Drew’s dad, called his number.
Indeed, Schwab took a pitch right on the play and pulled up to throw as Drew circled out of the pocket to the left.
“We really work on carrying out our play fakes and Yorkville hadn’t been going with me,” Drew said of his first receiving TD in high school. “I looked back after scoring and Graham had taken a shot as he made the throw. He was sitting on the ground yelling and throwing his arm in the air like he was cracking a whip.
“I couldn’t have been more proud of him. He does everything well and has stepped up with Ammar being down.”
Plenty of work went into the play.
“We’ve been roughing it out ever since summer and I’ve built confidence with coach Kleinhans and Drew to hit that pass,” Schwab said. “This week, we hammered it in and had a bunch of good reps, some game-speed reps and some walk-through reps. The perfect moment struck.
“Chaos ensued, and you’ve gotta make a play.”
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