Maine West 20, Maine East 19

Maine West faced some challenges heading into Friday's Central Suburban North football contest.

The Warriors were without a few starters, including quarterback Sean Willett, and were still looking for their first win.

What's more was visiting Maine East was also winless and just as hungry. It showed and at one point the Blue Demons went up by 2 touchdowns in Des Plaines.

But determination, a few adjustments and some patience paid off in the end as the Warriors (1-5, 1-1) took the game 20-19.

"I'm very proud of them," said first-year Maine West coach Chris Hare after his first head coaching victory. "We never gave up -- there were times we were down by two scores and things weren't looking so good. We changed our offense. We went to our spread and the kids bounced right back."

Frank Hess stepped in as quarterback and made things happen for the Warriors.

"Sean is out unfortunately -- but I filled in for him," Hess said. "(Early in the season) I played at the Wheeling game and I was nervous. Now, I'm not nervous at all."

Maine West struck early thanks to the running of Andy Kunzer (16 carries, 79 yards)ˆ  and Jon Cruz (7 carries, 66 yards). Cruz ran in 14 yards for a 7-0 lead.

But the Blue Demons (0-6, 0-2) had no plans of giving up -- especially not running back Plez Roche. Roche rushed for 153 yards on 20 carries, including TD runs of 62, 34 and 19 yards. With 3:24 left in the third, Maine East led 19-7.

"At the beginning, we came out strong and nailed it to them," Hess said. "Then we began letting up. After halftime, we said we were going to win this game."

Maine West's offense soon started producing those touchdowns it needed.

"(Things turned) when we opened it up and spread them out," Hare said. "We didn't want to put the game in our quarterback's hands -- with him not being a starter -- but we did and he (came through). My hat's off to Frank Hess."

Hess, who rushed for 83 yards, cut the deficit to 19-14 on a 1-yard run with 29 seconds left in the third. In the fourth, Hess connected with Andrew Gorodo for a 16-yard TD toss and a 20-19 lead.

"It's the first win -- that's always a good one," said Hess.

"The adversity that we had -- we're playing without our starting running back, our starting quarterback and our starting center," Hare said. "And all three of those (start on) defense -- so we're missing six starters.

"The kids responded well to that -- I couldn't be more proud."