Football: Harvard-Westlake is pulling off a success story

Before the season began, Harvard-Westlake dropped its junior varsity team for lack of players. Then standout linebacker Carter Begel decided to give up football to concentrate on basketball and another standout, Ryan Dominick, moved to Hawaii.

As if things couldn’t get any worse, the Wolverines’ starting qurterback, Marshal Cohen, tore his ACL in the first quarter of the first game against Loyola.

Seven weeks later, the Wolverines are 5-2 and 2-0 in the Angelus League after pulling out a 27-21 win over St. Francis on Thursday night on a 47-yard touchdown pass from Noah Rothman to Alex Barnum as time expired.

“It was great,” Coach Scot Ruggles said.

Barnum also had a 95-yard touchdown reception and a fumble recovery. If speed matters, Barnum has it. He ran the 100 meters in 10.92 seconds last spring as a junior and the 200 in 21.75. He’ll be one of the fastest track athletes next spring in the Mission League.

“Speed kills, and it’s something we haven’t been blessed with in my time, but nothing like Alex,” Ruggles said. “Hats off to him. He’s really improved.”

Another key player has been 5-foot-8, 160-pound linebacker Mike Mapes, a four-year starter.

“If we had 11 Mike Mapes, we’d be an unbelievable football team,” Ruggles said. “He plays the game the way it’s supposed to be. I wish we had him another 10 years.”

Lots of players have improved to give the Wolverines a shot at the Angelus League title.

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