Warren senior Donovan McNeal wanted to make a statement on offense this season.

After playing running back for the majority of his career, McNeal spent most of his first varsity season as a linebacker.

“I did get a few carries last year but played mostly defense,” he said. “Last year was my first year not starting at running back, but I still got the ball.”

The 5-foot-9, 195-pound McNeal got the ball enough to score four touchdowns during Warren’s season-opening loss to Barrington last week.

McNeal followed that up by scoring on a 5-yard run in the Blue Devils’ 28-7 loss to Maine South in Gurnee on Thursday. He also stopped a Hawks drive with a sack in the first half and caught a 20-yard pass in the fourth quarter.

“We call Donovan ‘The Microwave’ because he’s instant offense,” McNulty said. “He was good last year, but we had a different team, so he didn’t have to run the ball much.”

On his TD run, McNeal carried two defenders into the end zone, cutting the Hawks’ lead to 14-7 with 1:41 left in the third quarter. But Maine South (1-1) reeled off 14 unanswered points, highlighted by a 50-yard TD run by quarterback Constantine Coines with 3:33 left in the fourth quarter.

“It feels good running the ball more, but I just want to help out the team in whatever way they need,” McNeal said. “That (touchdown) felt good. Just punching it in feels good.”

The Blue Devils (0-2) couldn’t generate much offense for most of the game. McNeal was held to 15 yards on eight carries. Sophomore running back Aaron Stewart rushed for 110 yards on 19 carries, and senior quarterback Nathan Foster ran for 105 yards, most of which came when the game was out of reach.

Warren coach Bryan McNulty said it’s tough to drop the first two games of the season, but he expects his players to be ready for the team’s North Suburban Conference opener against Libertyville next week.

The Hawks, who were forced to forfeit nine victories last season after an investigation by the Illinois High School Association, intercepted two passes in the second half to prevent a comeback by Warren.

“Our team is extremely young,” McNulty said. “We don’t have many seniors. This is part of the growing pains of it. I didn’t want the kids to quit, and they didn’t. Great job by Maine South. We just made some critical errors at certain times.”

McNeal said he got ready to be a two-way starter this season by working on his conditioning and hitting the weight room. He said he grew 2 inches and gained 8 pounds. He used to wrestle and run track but dropped the two sports to focus solely on football.

“Last year changed my mindset,” McNeal said. “It helped me become a better football player. I realized if I want to be on a state championship team that I have to elevate my game. I’ve just been progressing every year and trying to get better.”

McNeal said he gained a lot of confidence from his sterling performance against Barrington. His strength running between the tackles and churning out extra yards extended several drives against Maine South.

With his power and Stewart’s speed and elusiveness, the Blue Devils have a strong one-two punch.

“The coaches put me in a good position last week,” McNeal said. “They trusted me to get the ball in the end zone. It motivated me a lot that the coaches trusted me.

“Aaron is a young guy, and he’s going to be really good.”

McNulty agreed and said McNeal is the consummate team player.

“He’s a leader on offense and defense, a good student,” McNulty said. “He works hard and is a great lifter and has bought into everything we do.

“He gives Aaron a chance to rest and develop. Aaron Stewart is going to be one of the best kids that we’ve seen around here in a long time.”

Maine South coach Dave Inserra credited his defense for slowing down Warren’s running attack.

“Both running backs and their quarterback can run the football and hard,” Inserra said. “We had to tackle them lower. We tried to learn from it at halftime. (McNeal) had that big game against Barrington. We made a few different calls and corrections at halftime, and kids executed defensively.”

Bobby Narang is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.