Maine S. too much for Schaumburg

There was little Schaumburg could do to stop the offensive juggernaut that is the Maine South football program.

With a pair of first-time varsity quarterbacks going head to head, Maine Souths Tyler Benz had the luxury of Indiana-bound running back Matt Perez and an arsenal of wide receivers to choose from en route to a decisive 64-35 victory to kick off the 2009 football season.

Playing on newly installed Field Turf and under the lights for the first time at Wilson Field, Benz threw for 229 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The senior added three more scores on the ground with 57 yards rushing.

At first, they were giving us outside looks, said Benz, who watched Charlie Goro lead the Hawks to the Class 8A title in 2008. They were taking away the deep pass, so we stuck to short passes.

The strategy seemed to have worked. Of Benzs 229 passing yards, 192 of them came in the first half.

Opposite Benz under center was junior Mark Iannotti, who had big shoes to fill in replacing his brother, Anthony, who earned all-area honors in 2008. Mark Iannotti didn't have quite the success Benz had in the air, but he said the real problem wasnt with the teams effort or physicality.

"There was a communication error," Iannotti said. "There were a lot of problems with play calling and snap counts."

That was evident in the teams five fumbles, even though none actually resulted in a turnover.

Schaumburg managed to outscore the Hawks in the third quarter, rallying to within two scores. And the Saxons stopped Maine South yet again to start the final quarter, but the offensive line broke down on the ensuing drive.

Two sacks and a punt later, the Hawks had the ball back in Schaumburg territory and didnt make any more mistakes.

Coming out of halftime, Iannotti said, "we just wanted to stick it to them and send them a message that we could compete with them."

"You play against a team as talented and well coached as Maine South, you try to do your own thing," added Schaumburg coach Mark Stilling, noting that fundamentals were lacking in the first half. "We need to focus more on what were doing and not on the team on the other side."