Rolling Meadows lights it up at Elk Grove
In honor of homecoming week, quite a fireworks show was presented before and after Friday's night football game at Elk Grove.
In between, visiting Rolling Meadows made plenty of its own noise on the field.
Sparked by the first two interception returns for touchdown of Willis Goodwin's career (84 and 25 yards) and touchdown runs of 73, 60 and 19 yards by Tim Szylak, Meadows built a 35-0 halftime lead en route to a 48-0 Mid-Suburban League East triumph.
The victory kept the Mustangs (6-1, 3-0) tied for first place with Hersey (6-1, 3-0).
"We always want to play a complete game," said Goodwin, a 5-foot-10 senior cornerback. "That's our goal."
The Mustangs got the past the goal line on the second play from scrimmage when Goodwin picked off his first pass and darted to the end zone.
"Willis is an incredible player," said Mustangs coach Matt Mishler. "He's been incredible in his entire two-year varsity career. When you show up to work every day to get better, those are things that will happen."
Good things continued to happen for the Mustangs.
Despite being backed up to their own 13-yard line following senior Tyler Selvig's punt, Meadows went 93 yards in five plays capped by Szylak's 60-yard TD run with 36.4 seconds left in the opening quarter.
The fleet-footed junior raced up the middle behind the superb blocking of Andrew Neville, John Carlstrom, William Rezny, Joe Boyer and Dawson Krull.
"Our line did one heck of a job," said Szylak who raced for 4 touchdowns in a win over Vernon Hills in Week 3. "We are just going to go back to practice and work to keep getting better."
After the Mustangs' defense served up a three and out series, Meadows got the ball back on its own 27 and Szylak once again started up the middle, veered to the outside and sped all 73 yards to the end zone for a 21-0 lead.
The Mustangs rushed for 214 yards and passed for 69 yards.
"We kind of take pride in being balanced," said Mishler, whose team passed for 264 yards one week earlier. "We always want to run the ball but we know there are going to be times where we have to pass it. This game was one of those things where they did some things to us on the outside that took away some things we like to do. But the result of that was that we were able to get some things inside."
Goodwin's second Pic 6 featured some nice cut back moves and made the score 28-0. Selvig, the Grenadiers quarterback, was injured on the play and did not return to the game.
Sophomore Charlie Svoboda took over the rest of the game and rushed for 25 yards.
"Charlie is a tough kid," said Grenadiers coach Miles Osei. "We've got to focus on his offensive reads. Our little mistakes in the game compounded. Rolling Meadows is a well-coached team. They did some real good things offensively and defensively."
After another three-and out by the defense, Meadows went 68 yards late in the first half, capped by senior Jared Axelrad's 1-yard TD run that made it 35-0.
Meadows initiated the running clock when it marched 74 yards on the opening possession of the second half, finishing it off with Szylak's 19-yard burst up the middle.
Szylak, a state qualifier in the 300 hurdles last year, finished with 108 yards while Axelrad had 71.
"We've got some really fast running backs," Mishler said. "And if we can get them a crease, they are dangerous. The offensive line did a great job opening up holes and they really ran well.
"I thought Elk Grove played really hard when we saw them on film and playing here is always tough. We expected a battle and our kids responded. They came out and got after it from the get-go."