New Trier spoils it for Schaumburg

Schaumburg's home opener did not play out as the Saxons had hoped it might.

In a game that stretched deep into the night, Schaumburg came up short 34-14 against New Trier (1-0) at Gary Scholz Stadium.

Schaumburg was held to 142 yards of total offense, all of which were on the ground. The Saxons struggled to get their run game going throughout the night and seemed to have no answer for the Trevians' defense.

"I felt that they did whatever they wanted to do; they pushed us around," said Schaumburg coach Mark Stilling. "We have a ton of things we need to get better at in seven days and I know we can do it."

Schaumburg put together a four-minute, 80-yard drive, capped off by a 6-yard touchdown run from Justice MacNeal (16 carries, 81 yards, TD) to give them some momentum in the game until that was halted by an 87-minute weather delay.

When both teams returned to the field, the Trevians came out with a different edge, led by senior running back Kevin Mulhern ( 171 yards and 1 touchdown on 23 carries).

"Our game plan was to run, run and keep running on them. Our line did a great job tonight of moving guys up front," Mulhern said. "I give a lot of credit to our defense as well, being able to shut down MacNeal and force them to try and go to someone else."

The Trevians finished with 405 yards of offense, 301 of which came after the weather delay as former Elk Grove coach Brian Doll made his debut with New Trier.

"We knew they had a lot of new starters and we wanted to do a lot of evaluation early in the game," said Doll. "During that delay we were able to regroup and talk to our guys about what was working and what wasn't, because we felt them taking some of that momentum back."

Doll was extremely pleased with the way his group responded after the delay. Assisting Mulhern was sophomore quarterback Clay Czyzynski, with 37 yards on the ground and 100 yards in the air.

Czyzynski tossed a 24-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Scott Hammes to give New Trier a 14-7 lead early in the third quarter, and the Trevs tacked on 20 points in the fourth quarter.