Getting his fill: Warriors’ big man feasts on pancakes

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Sterling senior lineman Tyler Loos has keyed the Golden Warriors' turn-around from a 1-2 start to the second round of the class 5A playoffs. Loos has been offered scholarships by seven Division I or I-AA football teams. (Philip Marruffo/pmarruffo@svnmail.com)

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Tyler Loos has no reason to be hungry after Sterling football games this season.

After all, the senior has his fill of pancakes virtually every time the Golden Warriors take the field.

A pancake block, in football vernacular, is when an offensive lineman puts a defender flat on his back. Over the last seven weeks of the season, the 6-foot-5, 280-pound Loos has averaged nine pancakes per game, according to film broken down by the Sterling coaching staff.

A broad smile came over Loos’ face when asked about the art of the pancake.

“It feels pretty good,” Loos said. “It’s the best part of offense. That’s why I like offense so much – it’s just because of pancaking people and having them know you beat ’em.”

The turnaround game for Loos and the Golden Warriors came in Week 4, at home against Johnsburg. Sterling was 1-2 at the time and facing an unknown opponent with a known commodity – C.J. Fiedorowicz, a 6-foot-7, 240-pound defensive end/tight end who has verbally committed to Illinois.

“Tyler just absolutely dominated him,” Sterling coach Greg King said.

“He pancaked him one time right in front of [Illinois football coach] Ron Zook. That’s what we’re looking for out of Tyler, and I think that game kind of turned the season around for us.”

“After those two losses, I was pretty anxious to get another win,” Loos said of defeats against Lemont and Geneseo. “Everybody was talking about how good he was, and I just went out, did my best and took care of him.”

Loos has been taking care of people for the better part of three seasons. He was a starter at right tackle as a sophomore, and has started on the left side for two seasons. Loos also plays about every third defensive series at noseguard, as well as goal-line situations, but he truly shines on offense.

“We expect him to be at a high level,” King said. “He’s one of the elite linemen in the state of Illinois. We expect him to be at that level, but he’s actually kicked it up more than we expected. Not only is he dominant at the point of attack, he has a lot of great blocks downfield.”

Loos started turning heads at the end of his sophomore year, when he held his own in a playoff game against Woodstock Marian’s Sean Cwynar, currently a starter at Notre Dame. Recruiting letters started trickling in shortly thereafter, and now he’s firmly on college recruiters’ radar.

Loos has received scholarship offers from Northern Illinois, Southern Illinois, Eastern Illinois, Illinois State, Western Michigan, Western Kentucky and Wyoming. Fielding calls and opening letters are a routine part of his week, as are inquiries from friends and family. He plans to visit the schools who have offered scholarships sometime after the season, and make a choice as soon as possible.

“It’ll be nice once I commit,” Loos said, “so I can just say, ‘I’m going here’ and be done with it.”

Saturday’s local games

• Sterling at Washington, 1 p.m.

• Morrison at Eastland-Pearl City, 1 p.m.

• Annawan-Wethersfield at Amboy, 1 p.m.

• Oregon at Newman, 2 p.m.

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