St. Charles East powers past South Elgin
St. Charles East calls the play 44 power. South Elgin was powerless to stop it.
Th Saints broke free from a 7-7 fourth-quarter tie to prevail 21-14 in an Upstate Eight Conference game at Millennium Field in Streamwood Friday night by running that play repeatedly and successfully throughout the second half.
Behind the lead blocking of fullback Nolan Possley and the powerful right side of a jumbled-due-to-injury offensive line - Eric Olstad (5-foot-9, 250 pounds), Mark Lindholm (6-4, 320) and Jess Streidl (6-3, 230) - junior Zachary Zajicek rushed 21 times for 149 yards. He amassed 86 of those yards on the go-ahead drive that bridged the third and fourth quarters.
Forced into action due to injuries to running backs Cory Campbell and Matt Payne, the latter of whom left the game in the second quarter with a foot injury, Zajicek rushed for 124 yards after halftime and carried the ball 10 times during the key 12-play drive, capping it with a 2-yard burst with 10:04 left in the fourth quarter that gave the Saints (2-2, 2-0) a 14-7 lead.
It was all the O-line," Zajicek said. "They were making holes all game. I just had to run north and south."
"I'm proud of him," St. Charles East coach Mark Fields said. "He ran the ball so hard. But it starts with the offensive line. That's a heck of a crew to have to deal with and I give them all the credit in the world to go out there and trust each other to get this done. I wouldn't wanna be on the other side of those guys."
South Elgin's defensive line - outweighed at some positions by 100 pounds - was getting pushed back into the linebackers, creating gaping lanes for Zajicek. The Saints rushed 47 times for 233 yards.
"We didn't do a good job," said South Elgin coach Dale Schabert, whose team fell to 3-1, 1-1. "I know coach (defensive coordinator Jason) Schaal was working like crazy on the sidelines. He's a good coach and he was working his tail off to get everybody in the right place. He did everything he possibly could. We invented calls trying to do stuff to stop it."
After the South Elgin offense went 3-and-out, the Saints drove 48 yards in 6 plays, 4 of them rushes by Zajicek for 28 yards. Quarterback Charlie Fisher's 1-yard sneak with 5:52 left in the game gave the Saints a 21-7 lead.
The Storm offense, which had been held to 79 yards in the first half, responded by driving 88 yards in 20 plays, an impressive march in which quarterback John Menken converted 3 fourth-down passes. Menken's 9-yard strike on a slant to Sheldon Chaney cut the deficit to 21-14 with 28.9 seconds left, setting up an onside kick.
The Storm, kicking from the St. Charles East 45-yard line due to a penalty on the previous touchdown play, thought they had recovered the ball when Jake Kumerow fielded David Reisner's bouncing kick and returned it to the Saints' 30-yard line. However, the officials ruled Kumerow made contact a yard too soon, giving the Saints the ball and the ability to kneel once for the victory.
"I still think it's our ball, but that's me," Schabert said. "It's a close enough call and there was a lot of emotion. The officials are going the best they can."