Drive helps Fremd survive
Fremd didn't even have two minutes to run its two-minute offense on Saturday afternoon.
There were only 58 seconds on the clock when the Vikings got the ball -- and they were in a tie game with Lake Zurich, and 65 yards away from the end zone.
Then again, 58 seconds seems like an eternity when you're used to working under much tighter deadlines.
"In practice, the coaches have us do a two-minute drill that's kind of like our conditioning for the day -- except they give us a 15-second clock," Fremd quarterback Mark Tolzien said. "They give us 15 seconds to get to the ball and run a play. They make it tough on us on purpose and we practice it over and over again every single day."
The Vikings' penchant for haste did not make for waste in their season opening 27-20 victory over Lake Zurich, which got a home game out of the deal since the recent storms left Fremd's home field a muddy, soggy mess.
With time ticking, Tolzien calmly took the reins of his offense on Lake Zurich's picture-perfect synthetic turf field. He threw all of his passes toward the sidelines so his receivers could run out of bounds and stop the clock, and he moved the Vikings all the way down to the Lake Zurich 14 in just 35 seconds.
On the next play, with just 17 seconds left on the clock, he found Mike Koeneman in the corner of the end zone for the winning touchdown.
"Catching that pass was unbelievable, it put chills down my spine," said Koeneman, who hauled in a total of 8 passes for 92 yards. "We practice situation drills all the time to get ready for games like this, and practice makes perfect. We were calm in the huddle.
"And our offensive line, I've got to give it to them. Tolzien was unbelievable today and our offense line gave him the time to throw like that."
And throw Tolzien did.
He completed 24 of 34 passes for 290 yards and 2 touchdowns. His other big target was Andrew Corso, who caught 8 passes for 140 yards.
"Our 'D' couldn't stop them. It's our fault," Lake Zurich cornerback Michael Dietrich said. "(Tolzien) is a good thrower, he's a good passing quarterback. I didn't think they'd pass that much.
"It was close the whole game, though. We just made some mental mistakes."
Throughout the game, the Bears had some key gains negated because of penalties. They also lost the ball on a fumble that led directly to a Fremd touchdown.
"(Fremd) made plays and they didn't make mistakes like we did," Lake Zurich coach Bryan Stortz said. "We just didn't execute. Our kids were prepared, but we didn't execute the way we're capable of.
"Like I've said before, we have the ability to play with just about anybody. But when you play with as many mistakes as we did, you're not going to beat anybody."
Fremd got out to a quick lead midway through the first quarter when linebacker Kevin Krieter picked up a Lake Zurich fumble and sprinted 16 yards for a touchdown. The Vikings upped their lead to 13-0 on a second quarter touchdown pass (4 yards) from Tolzien to Benjamin Perna.
Lake Zurich took some momentum into halftime thanks to a Dan Kalcsics 1-yard touchdown run midway through the second quarter and a clutch stop by the defense deep in its own territory just before the break.
The Bears then tied the game at 13-13 midway through the third quarter on an 11-yard Adam Simpson run, but Fremd regained the lead just before the end of the period on a Mark Tolzien 1-yard quarterback sneak.
Lake Zurich tied the score again at 20-20 when Simpson ran in a 5-yard touchdown with 1:02 left. Overtime seemed eminent.
But that's when Fremd's hurry-up offense took over.
"The offense came on and did exactly what they practice," Fremd coach Mike Donatucci said. "The calmness was there. (Offensive coordinator) Steve Patton instills that in those kids. They know situations, they know the clock, they know the out-of-bounds stuff and it's just very nice when it all works like that."