Niles North 35, Maine West 28

The hardest part of putting together a game plan for Maine West football coach Chris Hare for its final two opponents -- Highland Park and Deerfield -- might be the toughest part of the entire season.

It's not only because the Warriors are having a difficult season, with Friday night's homecoming game resulting in a 35-28 Central Suburban North victory for visiting Niles North just seconds before overtime.

Hare's biggest obstacle for his final two games in his inaugural season as Warriors' head coach is coming up with enough healthy bodies to field a team.

West (1-6, 1-2) began the game with Frank Hess, one of its best receivers, at quarterback. He started there after regular quarterback Sean Willett suffered a concussion two weeks ago at Glenbrook North.

But Hess suffered an ankle injury at the end of the first quarter Friday and Willett played quarterback the rest of the way.

"Obviously Frank went down pretty quick," Hare said. "We didn't want Sean in the game. He hasn't practiced all week and what he did was tremendous."

Willett was 9-for-21 and passed for 2 touchdowns.

Niles North (3-4, 1-2) led from the first quarter on, and was in front 28-14 with 2:33 left in the third quarter.

But Willett started finding his receivers, most notably Andrew Gorordo (7 catches, 118 yards) and Nick Abramson (2 catches, 51 yards).

With 5:59 to go in the game, Willett hit Gorordo with a 21-yard pass in the end zone and Emsad Zahirovic's extra point cut the gap to 28-21.

On their next possession, the Warriors needed two plays -- 30- and 32-yard runs by Dan Lowe -- to tie the game at 28-28 with 4:00 left.

While the game appeared headed for overtime, Vikings quarterback Chris Flores prevented it by hitting Jeff Williams with a 35-yard pass, then running the ball in from 5 yards with seven seconds to go for a 35-28 edge.

"We ran out of time," Hare said. "If we had another chance with the ball, we would have won it."