Skowronek gets the last laugh

The old axiom states that he who laughs last, laughs best.

In Northwestern wide receiver commitment Ben Skowronek's case, he will also laugh the longest. He will certainly be laughing until he enrolls at Northwestern with good friend/arch rival/future teammate Aidan Smith -- and possibly long after.

Skowronek and Ft. Wayne (Ind.) Homestead exacted some revenge and exorcised some demons by topping star quarterback Smith and Ft. Wayne Carroll 35-26 last Friday night to claim the Indiana Class 6A Sectional 3 championship that belonged to Carroll the last two seasons.

How big a win was this for Skowronek and Homestead? The Spartans had lost five straight to their archrivals, including losses that got them eliminated from the playoffs the last two years.

"We lost to them in the regular season (31-24 on Sept. 11) and they're our biggest rival," said Skowronek, a three-star wide receiver. "The past two years, they knocked us out of the playoffs. Finally, we got them."

Skowronek, who said he was used mainly as a decoy in this contest, caught only three passes. Homestead's star was quarterback Drew Keszei, who completed 22-of-25 passes for 257 yards and three touchdowns, and rushed 19 times for 122 yards and two more TDs.

Skowronek's biggest play of the night was an interception of one of Smith's passes.

"I was playing free safety, and watching film this week I had an idea of what they were doing," he said. "They tried a double-move on the backside and I broke on it. I jumped up to get it and got my foot down before I went out of bounds."

That wasn't quite the way Smith saw it, however.

"It was a poor attempt of throwing the ball away," said the three-star signal caller. "He's a rangy kid. I wish I could have that one back."

Skowronek couldn't resist needling his good friend after getting the better of him on that play. "I guess he threw his first pass to me a little early."

Skowronek and Smith, who were 7-on-7 teammates who claimed a national championship this summer, hope to hook up on passes early and often during the next four to five years in Evanston. They also sat in the stands at Ryan Field together to watch Northwestern's games against Stanford and Ball State earlier this season.

Smith said his game on Friday night was "nothing too amazing, but not a bad game, either." He wound up completing 20-of-26 passes for 231 yards and three touchdowns, and he ran for 64 more yards. He threw two interceptions -- one on a tipped pass and the one to Skowronek.

Gracious in defeat, Smith gave full credit to the Spartans for the victory.

"It was tough because it was the first time they've beaten us in three years," he said. "Their defense played really well. They loaded the box and they had a safety shadow me. They outperformed us. They came out with more fire."

Skowronek and Smith are best friends who talk almost constantly. But they didn't speak to each other at all last week in the lead-up to the game. "He's my best friend, but he was my opponent last week," said Skowronek.

Smith, a three-star prospect himself who is a little more laid back than Skowronek, thinks that the gag order isn't that big of a deal. "He's more serious about the no-talk rule than I am," he said.

The win gave Homestead (8-3) the sectional trophy and a berth in the regional championship against Carmel on Friday night. Carroll finished its season with a record of 7-4.

After the game, Skowronek gave Smith a call to let them know that the two "were best friends again. He wasn't as upset as I thought he'd be. He doesn't get too high or too low."

Smith concedes that Homestead was the better team in his final game as a high schooler, but he doesn't think that Skowronek will have bragging rights in perpetuity because of it.

"I think I feel good about beating him three out of four times (head-to-head, over the last two years, when both players were starters)," he said with tongue in cheek. "Make sure you write that we have three trophies. He only has one."