Wrap-up: Schaumburg 27, Hoffman Estates 13

A hard-working Hoffman Estates team made it very difficult Thursday night for host Schaumburg to keep improving week to week and make a run at a second consecutive playoff spot.

But Schaumburg still managed to accomplish all that to good degree in a hard-fought 27-13 win that opened Mid-Suburban West play.

"That's just the rivalry," said Saxons quarterback Cody Logsdon. "We're good friends with a lot of those guys. Records don't count."

They do to the IHSA though, and Schaumburg (3-2, 1-0) is still quite playoff eligible. The Saxons wanted to show they made strides from the previous week's nail-biter over Elk Grove in which they surrendered almost 400 yards rushing.

"I thought (Hoffman) tried to run the ball," said Saxon coach Mark Stilling. "We stopped it. Our plan was to make them throw the ball."

And throw it they did, to the tune of 235 yards for Frank Wadas, including a TD to Mike Swedlund and a 1-yard plunge for a score.

But Logsdon countered with 206 passing yards, and no picks, plus TDs of 37 yards to Eric Hauser, 10 yards on a swing pass to Mick Trimarco and 23 yards down the middle to John Spandiary for what would be the game-clinching score. Logsdon also ran for a score.

"Our (offensive) line did real well," he said of his protection and the ability to run Trimarco for 139 yards.

"Our offensive line continues to get better," said Stilling of Mario Echavaria, John Mejia, Mike Scolire, Craig Cruz and Kevin Quinn.

But now the defense has to tighten up. Even though the Saxons forced the Hawks (1-4, 0-1) to play catch-up and pretty much abandon their ground game, they gave up a lot of yards and let the Hawks come very close to making the game a lot closer.

"It would've been nice to finish," Hawks coach Bill Helzer said after being stopped four times in Saxon territory, including once after recovering an onside kick and another having a pass picked off in the end zone by Alex Coglianese, who was all over the secondary for Schaumburg.

Swedlund had 9 catches for 149 yards and Reid Wilson and Blake Heyman each had four or more catches for double-digit yardage.

Meadows 35, Wheeling 6: Rolling Meadows thrives on the pressure.

No, not the pressure of being the state's top-ranked Class 7A football team.

This group thrives on the pressure the Mustangs put on their opponents.

"Any time you can consistently put pressure on people, and they have to chase, I think it's hard in high school football," said Mustangs coach Rolling Meadows.

The Mustangs (5-0, 1-0) made Wheeling chase all evening Thursday, scoring the game's first 3 touchdowns en route to a convincing 35-6 MSL East win.

"When you play that fast and force people into playing catchup football, you can make special things happen like they did," Millsaps said.

Millsaps gave his team every opportunity to jump to a big lead early.

Already leading 7-0, the Mustangs' second possession appeared to stall at the 33. But a 7-yard swing pass to senior Trevor Fritz ( 5 rushes 33 yards, 5 receptions 33 yards) on a fourth-and-4 continued the drive.

The Mustangs made it 14-0 four plays later when Mikal Johnson (10 rushes, 39 yards, 2 TDs) bulldozed into the end zone from 1 yard.

The coach's tactics paid off, forcing Wheeling (2-3, 0-1) to play from at least two scores behind the entire night.

With the Wildcats trying to throw their way back into the game, cornerback Stan Pheteau took full advantage. The senior picked off 2 passes and added a fumble recovery.

"It's all coaching," he said. "We watch film all week. Coach is always ready. The coaches give us so much information, and they put us in the right position to make plays."

The Wildcats appeared to get back into the game just before the half, capping a 12-play, 52-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run by quarterback Matt Holmes that made the score 21-6.

But David Ubert made sure the Mustangs didn't go into the break on a down note. The senior returned the ensuing kickoff 84 yards for their fourth score of the half.

"That just demoralized them," said Wildcats coach Dave Dunbar. "We score and we're right there. Then boom, they bust it. It's like, 'unbelievable.' "

-- Justin Rosenberg

BG 35, Elk Grove 21: Host Buffalo Grove only ran 8 plays in the first quarter, but thanks to a little help from special teams it put 14 points on the board.

While both offenses stayed productive, that would be the margin as the Bison kicked off MSL East play -- and homecoming week -- with a 35-21 win over Elk Grove on Thursday night.

BG's special teams struck first after Elk Grove opened the game with a three-and-out. The punt was blocked and BG recovered to set up on the Grenadiers 18.

Four plays later, Chris Hulings ran in a short run to put the hosts up 7-0.

Later, with just seconds left in the first quarter, Steve Miller returned a punt for 68 yards for a 14-0 lead.

The ensuing kickoff then got loose and the Bison recovered. This set up a 2-yard TD run by Josh Hampton early in the second to go up 21-0. From there, more traditional offenses took shape -- on both sides.

"Obviously we had to have been doing something right offensively," said BG coach Rich Roberts, whose team improved to 2-3. "Up front we had some nice holds. We're getting better. We've got to keep working on it."

Hampton's was quite productive with 142 yards on 22 carries. He also scored on a 49-yard run and a 26-yard reception from John Bakun early in the fourth.

"Tonight we wanted to come out running the basics and get the job done," Hampton said. "(My team) played amazing. (Next week) we would like to win our homecoming so we're going to keep on working hard."

Although the Grenadiers (0-5) were down by 21 early in the second quarter, they answered as Kevin McDonald (10 carries, 107 yards) ran in for a 79-yard touchdown to make it 21-7.

"Special teams killed us in the first quarter," said Elk Grove coach Tom Whalen. "We can't make the mistakes we made -- we can't do that."

Quarterback Bryan Bathauer and Kory Laga also scored for the Grens on runs of 5 and 2 yards, respectively.

-- Bill Swick