South Elgin finishes with big win

With the wind in its face and pinned back deep in its own territory twice in the first quarter, the South Elgin football team needed something to spark its offense.

And a spark is just what the Storm got as it scored on every possession from the second quarter on in a 42-0 Upstate Eight Conference victory over the Streamwood Sabres (1-8, 1-6) on Saturday at Millennium Field.

On its first drive of the second quarter, the Storm drove the ball 82 yards as Trevor Hansley carried the ball 5 times for 41 yards while quarterback Patrick Rae capped the drive with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Josh Smith.

"That kid's so tough," Storm coach Dale Schabert said of Hansley. "That lit the fire. You suddenly saw the kids get a little taller in the huddle."

The Storm went on to score three more times in the first half as Smith earned his second TD of the game on a 52-yard punt return.

"I honestly thought I was going to get clobbered," Smith said as he caught the punt on the run. "I saw my dad on the sideline with the chain gang and he just kept waving me on."

Rae found Phillip Kawabata for a 12-yard TD while Brad Birchfield ran in for a 1-yard TD to cap the first half.

Rae finished the game 9 of 13 for 107 yards, throwing his third TD pass to Gianluca Pellegrino for 8 yards in the third quarter while Hansley (123 yards) scored on a 2-yard run in the fourth.

The Sabres were unable to take advantage of good field position in the first quarter, which set the tone for the rest of the game.

"There in that first quarter we were stopping them," said Sabres coach Cal Cummins. "We needed that early score and unfortunately we weren't able to get it."

The Sabres' best chance to score came in the third quarter as QB Joey Hanover found Jim Kaltinger for a deep pass, but it was brought back on a holding call.

Hanover finished the game 7 of 13 for 42 yards while Derrick King collected 48 rushing yards.