'Steamroller' Jayden Schlosser A Scoring Machine For Oak Lawn Football

OAK LAWN, IL—It’s rare for a fullback on a football team to find glory or find feature stories about him in the newspaper. Often times, his role is to gain two yards in a cloud of dust or just move the pile of defenders back a few yards. And when that fullback had never even played football before entering high school, it is even rarer that a spotlight would shine on him.

However, the fullback for the 6-0 Oak Lawn Community High School football team is truly making a name for himself and grabbing headlines. He’s certainly come a long way since the summer before his freshman year when nobody knew who he was.

Now, people know the name Jayden Schlosser.

“I had never played football before,” Schlosser said. “I remember my friend from eighth Anthony Campus, who played with the Outlaws, convinced me to go to summer camp for football. It took me all summer to get used to it because I didn’t know what I was doing at all.”

Now four years later as a senior, Schlosser runs as a focal point for the Spartan double-wing offense. He is option number one up the middle. But just because he primarily runs between the tackles and runs into defenders at the line of scrimmage, doesn’t mean that’s all he can do. Once he breaks a tackle, he can leave mangled opponents in the dust and race to the goal line from anywhere on the field.

In fact, Schlosser has hit paydirt a total of 14 times (13 rushing TDs) already this season. He’s added in a pair of two-point conversions as well. Many times, he is carrying defenders on his back while crashing into the endzone.

“I really like running defenders over,” Schlosser said. “But my favorite part of this football season and this team is the energy I feel from my teammates on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis.”

This season Schlosser’s energy has produced a total of 602 yards rushing on 64 carries. That’s nearly a 10-yard average per attempt. In addition, he’s also capable of catching the ball out of the backfield from quarterback Danny Strelow to make him a double threat. He has four catches for 80 yards receiving.

With a whopping four touchdowns in each of the first two games this season, Schlosser is picking up steam and certainly scoring more and more attention as Oak Lawn marches toward the Illinois High School Association Football State Playoffs. And with the Spartans sitting at 5-0 overall and 3-0 in the South Suburban Conference Red, the whole team is turning the heads of fans and opponents.

The last two games have been huge for the Spartans and specifically Schlosser. Last Friday night, in a 49-24 win over Shepard in Palos, Schlosser ran for 163 yards on 20 carries and scored four touchdowns. The week before that he had 107 yards rushing in addition to four more touchdowns as the Spartans defeated Argo, 62-7.

Right now, he is simply a scoring machine.

Schlosser and the Spartans look to continue their winning ways this Friday night Oct. 2, against crosstown rival Richards High School (4-2). Game time is 6:30 p.m at Korhonen Field, 106th Street and Central Avenue.