West off to wild start
This was quite a welcome to the wild world of Mid-Suburban West football.
The games were more like Arena Football League or the old American Football League. If you're looking for defense then go somewhere else after the three division openers totaled 214 points.
The same is true if you're looking for an easy game with five teams now over the .500 mark.
"Any team in this league is capable of being a playoff team," said Fremd linebacker-tackle Jeff Bobek after an exhilarating and exhausting 37-35 win over Schaumburg on Saturday.
"This weekend proved it," said Fremd coach Mike Donatucci, whose team is looking for its fourth outright West title. "Conant upsetting Palatine (40-34 Friday) and us almost getting upset here. Schaumburg is a good team, man."
The Saxons showed it the last two weeks by gashing two programs known for defense - Prospect and Fremd - for 89 points the last two weeks.
And Conant and Schaumburg - consensus preseason newspaper picks for the bottom two spots - proved they will make it tough on the favorites such as unbeaten Barrington, Fremd and Palatine.
"This team never gives up and goes out all the time," said Schaumburg senior Josh Spandiary, who had 11 catches for 134 yards and 3 touchdowns on the pinpoint passing of Anthony Iannotti. "We want to prove everyone wrong - that we're a better team than that."
After getting pushed around in the first half, the Saxons pushed back and were 36.5 seconds from the ultimate proof in ending Fremd's 19-game division winning streak. Linebacker Alex Coglianese seemed to be in every play and A.C. Giannelli made an acrobatic interception to help fuel their second-half rally.
They had to go 86 yards in the final five minutes to finally take the lead. On a day where Fremd was an incredible 7-for-7 on fourth downs, the Saxons got two do-or-die first downs and overcame two potentially devastating penalties.
"I'm sure the kids will tell you the same thing, it's tough to take moral victories away from this," said Schaumburg coach Mark Stilling. "But I'm proud as heck of the way the kids battled. Lesser people would have given up."
The same is true of Fremd as it saw plenty of time to still get the job done. Brett Opitz did by hitting his first varsity field goal from 33 yards.
"When they scored over there, (Mike) Tauchman came off the field and said, 'Don't worry, we've got 36 seconds to go get this one,'" Donatucci said.
It led to emotions usually reserved for the postseason and not the middle of the regular season. But that's how it figures to be to win the West.
"Heartbreaker," Spandiary said softly. "It hurts - but we have to make this a positive and we have to take it to Hoffman."