Pat Disabato’s football notebook

Lincoln-Way North coach George Czart has no complaints when it comes to his team’s performance this season.

The Phoenix are 3-0, having outscored foes 142-19, including Friday’s 49-13 shellacking of Andrew.

What concerns Czart, however, is the little resistance his team has faced from opponents.

“We’ve only been able to play our starters a half — at most,” he said. “I wonder what’s going to happen when we have to play a complete four quarters. We haven’t been in a battle yet. We’re trying to make our practices more competitive, but nothing matches game competition.”

North pretty much has accumulated its point totals in the first half of each game before sending in the reserves to finish things. The Phoenix opened the season with a 49-0 win over LaSalle-Peru, then defeated Hillcrest 44-6 in Week 2.

Quarterback Ryan Arthur, running back Jaylen Branch and receiver Kyle Ostrowski haven’t played much but have made the most of their minutes.

Czart admits it may be time to find more competitive nonconference games in future season. Both LaSalle-Peru and Hillcrest are 0-3.

“When we agreed to play Hillcrest they were coming off a 9-0 season,” Czart said. “We’re always looking at ways to make us better and more competitive.”

Rich East stays perfect

Coming off a 2-7 season in 2013, Rich East wasn’t mentioned among the teams that would compete for the 2014 Southland Conference.

Going 3-0, however, has elevated expectations for the Rockets.

“We expected to come out strong,” said Rich East coach Barry Reade, whose team drubbed Vocational 26-6 on Saturday. “After finishing 2-7, our kids took the offseason to think about it. We went through a lot of adversity last year.

“But this is a good group of kids who have worked very hard.”

The Rockets have relied on the 1-2 punch of running backs Marcel McDonald and Brian Stewart to reach the end zone. They’ve combined for nearly 550 yards in three games. Tight end Tyler McGregory has been a pleasant surprise and has a touchdown reception to his credit.

Davon Causey has anchored an offensive line that has performed admirably.

Reade believes the Rockets have benefited from using 19 different starters. McDonald, Stewart and Causey are the only players starting on both sides of the ball.

“That’s helped us out a lot,” Reade said of the limited two-way starters. “We’re not very big, but we’re playing together as a team.”

While much of the attention in the Southland Conference has been directed at Crete-Monee, Rich Central and Bloom, Reade believes his team can make some noise.

“We like to hope we can,” he said. “We’re definitely pleased with how we’re playing right now.”

Big night at H-F

Homewood-Flossmoor will honor its 1994 Class 6A state championship team during halftime of Friday’s SouthWest Suburban Blue Homecoming game vs. Joliet Central.

Twenty years ago, H-F edged Naperville North 13-12 to earn the program’s only state championship.

Former coach John Wrenn and defensive coordinator Tom Bailey will be among those returning to the campus and celebrating the 20th anniversary of the championship.