Maine West 27, Evanston 26 (OT)
On Friday night, Maine West's football team played its best game by far in the third week of the season.
Unfortunately, despite holding a 2-touchdown lead from 6:05 left in the second quarter until 4:28 left in the fourth, the Warriors lost the Central Suburban League crossover to visiting Evanston 27-26 in overtime.
"Our kids fought hard," said first-year West coach Chris Hare. "They played very good football against a good team.
"Our kids competed like no other against a bigger, faster team."
West (0-3) scored on its first possession on a pitchout from quarterback Sean Willett to Frank Hess from 18 yards.
Just 1:27 into the second quarter, the Warriors extended their lead to 14-6 when Willett again pitched out to Hess, this time from 42 yards out. Bennie Stinnette kicked his second extra point for a 14-0 lead.
But just 15 seconds later, Evanston (1-2) got on the scoreboard when Lacory Cook fielded Nick Abramson's kickoff from the 3 and returned the ball down the left sideline for a touchdown. The extra point was missed, making the score 14-6.
West's defense shut the Wildkits down from there while adding to its own point total.
With 6:05 to go before halftime, Willett found a huge hole and ran 24 yards into the end zone. The extra point was missed, but the Warriors led 20-6 at halftime.
At the start of the second half, Evanston became more aggressive with its tackling. In the meantime, West kept relying primarily on Willett and Hess on offense and an increasingly improving defense.
"We still thought we had our option going," Hare said. "But we had a couple of penalties, then we fumbled on the reverse."
Evanston waited until late in regulation before finding its offense again. With 4:28 left, quarterback Jake Rhode hit Michael Schannette for a 47-yard score but the 2-point conversion failed.
West fumbled away its next possession and it took Schannette just one play to run in from 8 yards. Evanston's 2-point conversion was successful this time with 2:31 left in regulation.
In overtime, Evanston scored on fourth and goal on a 2-yard run by Schannette, and Phil Hwang kicked the extra point for a 27-20 lead.
West needed just two plays to score, with Willett again pitching out to Hess. But the Warriors went for the win and were stopped.