O'Connell, Stevenson prevail at H-F

Stevenson senior defensive end Patrick O'Connell knows a thing or two about battling through adversity. After all, last season he played exactly one snap before injuring his knee and missing the rest of the year.

So when O'Connell and his Patriots teammates had to wait an extra day to play at state-ranked Homewood-Flossmoor after being postponed due to bad weather, that was just routine for O'Connell.

"I tried to keep my emotions in check," O'Connell said. "I waited so long to get a chance to play with these guys, so waiting an extra day was just another piece of adversity, I guess."

O'Connell did suit up and play in the Patriots' win last week against Indian Trail of Kenosha, Wis., and Saturday night, he and the Patriots defense rose to the occasion when called upon.

Facing even more adversity in the form of a 24-7 second-half deficit, O'Connell helped pace the defense with 5 tackles for loss including a pair of fourth quarter sacks, and senior quarterback Willie Bourbon scored four consecutive touchdowns, three of which came in the fourth quarter to help Stevenson (2-0) rally for a 33-24 win over the Vikings.

"Patrick is one heck of a football player," said Stevenson coach Bill McNamara. "He has been the victim of unfortunate circumstances with his injuries and he has something to prove and this was a great environment for him to really step up and show what he is capable of."

The Patriots dug themselves quite a hole against H-F (1-1), falling behind 24-7 with 6:35 to go in the third quarter. But a tip and a bounce finally went the way of the road team and momentum soon followed.

After Bourbon punched in the first of his four scores, Stevenson began driving again. On a key third- and-10 from the Vikings 49, Bourbon fired a pass in the direction of Tyler Vincent. The ball ricocheted off the hands of an H-F defender into the hands of Vincent for a much-needed first down to keep the drive alive. The drive ended on a 3-yard Bourbon keeper and Stevenson was within 24-21 with 10:39 left in the game.

"Not a lot of things were going our way in the first half," Bourbon said. "The miscues we had in the first half, we made up for those in the second half and you could feel the momentum swing."

Stevenson finally caught the Vikings after the defense came up with its third takeaway of the night. On a long third down from midfield, H-F quarterback Bryce Gray was intercepted by Kevin Pearson, who returned the ball to midfield. Six plays later, Bourbon converted the natural hat trick with this third straight rushing score and the Patriots had the lead for good at 27-24.

"Yesterday was yesterday, and we came away disappointed that we couldn't play last night even though we never wanted to put the kids in a dangerous spot," McNamara said. "Today we just tried to treat it like a normal game day and take away as much down time as we could."

The Patriots defense also shut down the potent running attack of H-F of twins Deante and Devonte Harley-Hampton. While both did significant damage in the first half, scoring a touchdown each, they were limited to only 24 combined yards rushing in the second half.

Bourbon added his final touchdown run from a yard out to ice the win in the final seconds. Vincent opened the scoring for Stevenson on a 5 yard run that knotted the game at 7-7 early in the second quarter.