Grant 21, Wauconda 17

High school football coaches can be pretty casual with their game attire.

Many chose to wear some kind of sweat suit in their team colors. Others go with simple khakis and an official team T-shirt or polo.

Grant coach Kurt Rous used to dress that way, too. But this year, he decided to switch up his wardrobe and go with a more business-like look.

Now, he wears a button-down dress shirt, dress pants and a tie.

Let's just say that he's been dressed for success for five straight weeks now.

With Rous' new look, Grant has yet to lose a game.

The Bulldogs had their stiffest test yet on Friday night when they put their undefeated record on the line against a Wauconda team that also had yet to experience a defeat.

The only two unbeaten teams in the North Suburban Prairie Division lived up to their billing in what eventually went down as a 21-17 victory for visiting Grant.

The Bulldogs improve to 5-0 overall and 3-0 in the Prairie Division while Wauconda, which had the ball in Grant territory with about two minutes remaining, drops to 4-1 and 2-1 in the Prairie.

"This means a lot to us," said Grant option quarterback Pavel Zurkowski, who ran in all three of his team's touchdowns. "Being 5-0 means we're on top alone. We just want to go out next week and do it again."

Zurkowski, for one, probably wouldn't mind a carbon copy performance.

He helped the Bulldogs firmly establish their rushing game from the start.

Zurkowski (22 rushes, 148 yards) capped off Grant's very first drive with a 56-yard touchdown run in which he bounced like a pinball off of defenders.

Then on Grant's next series, a 15-play drive, he ran the ball seven times to keep the sticks moving. He finished off by turning a fourth-down play into a 5-yard touchdown.

That gave Grant a 14-0 lead just a minute into the second quarter.

"Pavel is a horse," Rous said. "I wouldn't want to have to tackle him.

"He did a great job tonight and so did our offensive line. We've said all year that our best defense is our offense and keeping the ball moving and using up the clock."

Wauconda, which got a 9-yard touchdown run from Brad Wisniewski (24 rushes, 125 yards) and a 24-yard field goal from Keith Wilson in the second quarter, played the rest of the night from behind. But the Bulldogs came charging back hard enough to cut their deficit to 21-17 with 10:19 left in the game.

That's when quarterback Garrett Dorsey hit receiver Davis Mills with an 80-yard touchdown bomb.

With time winding down and Grant trying to hang on, Mills, also a linebacker, sacked Zurkowski for a big loss deep in Grant territory.

"I thought we were coming at that point," Mills said. "I thought after that hit I gave the QB, our offense would pound it up and score. Obviously, their defense stopped us."

After a Grant punt, Wauconda got the ball back with great field position at the Grant 49-yard line with 1:53 remaining.

But Grant got a big sack of its own when Jordan Welter took down Dorsey on third down.

An incomplete pass by Dorsey on the next play essentially ended the game.

That's when another interesting chain of events began to unfold.

Rous and Wauconda coach Glen Kozlowski exchanged words over what happened on the last series when Grant was trying to down the ball and run out the clock.

The Grant coaches didn't seem to like that fact that the Wauconda players were still going after the ball.

"I don't understand the end of the game," Kozlowski said. "We're playing football until the last whistle."