BG had grounds for an upset; Saxons look to continue rolling

Buffalo Grove figured if it wanted to upset Prospect it would happen by intentionally grounding quarterback Miles Osei last Friday.

Osei ran wild for 256 yards and 4 touchdowns but was only 5-for-17 passing for 33 yards with no touchdowns. John Angotti and Kevin Mulligan had interceptions as the Bison pulled off the 39-33 Mid-Suburban East victory.

"We were going to let him run and take away the big play," Farrell said. "(Defensive coordinator) Jeff Vlk had a great scheme from the standpoint we had good skill kids to match up with on the perimeter.

"We were in and out of schemes and showing different looks. We had nickel and dime looks most of the night to stop the deep ball."

Angotti did his part by shutting out Prospect receiving leader Peter Bonahoom.

And Mulligan had a full half of running for 147 yards and 3 touchdowns and picking off a pass before missing most of the second half with leg cramps.

"He was a one-man wrecking crew in the first half," Farrell said of Mulligan, who also missed time at the end of an overtime loss to Barrington because of cramps. "He was the reason it came to be.

"He'll be fine. The only chance of winning the Prospect game was with Mulligan all over the field with John and Mike (Cornely). For Kevin to have anything less than he did in the first half, we don't win that game."

Saxons instilled with confidence: Schaumburg takes a three-game winning streak to Fremd tonight after showing some resolve in last week's 28-21 win over Palatine.

"They pretty much had their way with us," Schaumburg coach Mark Stilling said of Palatine's opening drive-and-a-half. "We responded and did something about it as opposed to giving in.

"We stepped up and found a way to respond to the situation instead of being victims of the situation."

That included missing their two returning starters on the offensive line - although Mario Echevarria and Richard Barnes will be back tonight.

"We found a way to put 21 points on the board offensively and that says a lot about what (offensive line coach Bill) Lange and (offensive coordinator Mark) Steger are doing," Stilling said. "Now we have even more depth.

"Warren (running back Brewer) keeps getting better and I don't think we've seen his best game by any means."

And senior Patrick Derbak stepped up when he stepped in at tight end to become a two-way starter last week.

"He had his best week of preparation last week," Stilling said of the three-year starter. "We really challenged him and he responded. It showed up (last) Friday night."

Defensive Mustangs: Rolling Meadows' defense under coordinator Tony Wolanski has grown up quickly with 2 shutouts and an area-best average of 195 yards allowed going into tonight's trip to Elk Grove.

Most of Meadows' experience was in its front three of Erick Louis-Charles, Jordan Farnum and Bubba Lockett.

"I thought we'd continue to get better with all those young kids," said Meadows coach Doug Millsaps. "Colin (linebacker Buscarini) keeps making plays and he's what we thought he'd be. We're happy to get the other two back (Andrew Peters and Luciano Laterza) because that gives us some depth.

"We've faced some physical teams and I thought we'd get better and better, but I didn't know how fast it would happen, especially playing those people."

Elk Grove excitement at Elk Grove: Homecoming is hardly the only excitement around Elk Grove this week.

The Grenadiers can also become playoff eligible for the first time since 2004 if they get their fifth victory tonight against Rolling Meadows.

And first-year coach Brian Doll said people around town were talking up the big game.

"One thing which really, really is nice for our program," Doll said, "is you can sense around our school the atmosphere of people looking at Elk Grove with a lot of excitement."

For reasons which go beyond the thrills being provided by junior quarterback Nick Meyer. The Grenadiers are giving him plenty of opportunities to do some damage by causing 17 turnovers for a plus-13 margin in Doll's aggressive scheme.

"I didn't know how it was going to translate," Doll said. "Our sack numbers are pretty good and I think we've done a good job of getting after people even though people haven't thrown the ball at us too much the last couple of weeks."

That figures to change, weather permitting, tonight when the Grenadiers face Meadows quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.

"He does such a nice job of running around and stays behind the line of scrimmage for so long," Doll said. "He looks more agile (than last year). He looks quick and he's able to step outside the pocket.

"He doesn't take off when he gets pressure. He's so composed and sits back there and he has a handful of good receivers. We're looking forward to the challenge and I know our kids are."

Knights regrouping: Prospect coach Brent Pearlman saw last week's 39-33 loss at Buffalo Grove on the horizon.

"We've been struggling in practice for three weeks," Pearlman said. "We all kind of sensed something like this could happen."

Prospect did start showing some positive signs by not allowing a point in the second half. But Pearlman said it will take more than different schemes and players to shore things up for a team which has allowed 138 points (28 per game).

The Knights Class 7A state championship teams allowed 105 points (2001), 153 (2005) and 167 (2002). The most points allowed by a state champion since 1996 is 280 by Downers Grove South (8A) in 2001.

"You can't just look at the scheme," Pearlman said. "A lot of what's changed on the field is attitudes.

"More of it is coming from the kids - and somehow this team thought it was a lot better than they were."

Now the Knights will find out if the loss was good for them as they look to stay in the MSL East title hunt and make a deep postseason run.

"You'd hate to think we'd ever need something that adverse to happen to learn," Pearlman said. "BG came out fired up and they were hungry and I'm not sure if we ever reached that level either.

"I've been very happy with the response to what happened. There are a lot of directions this thing could have gone."

And Pearlman doesn't mind if quarterback Miles Osei continues to do the bulk of his damage with legs as he did last week against BG.

"It doesn't matter to us how he gets his yardage," Pearlman said. "I think offensively we're good enough to take what people give us.

"We needed to score every time we touched the ball - at least in this game we did."

A perfect combination: Leyden coach Tom Cerasani has six big reasons senior Angel Maldonado set the school's single-game rushing record of 287 yards last week and is closing in on the career mark of 2,786 by Jermaine Shaw from 1997-99.

They are Art Napier, Max Schammert, Jason Borntraeger, James Flosi, Elmer Guzman and tight end Dan Kiebler.

"I really feel it's the best offensive line we've had - not to take anything away from the teams in the past," Cerasani said. "It's a very smart group (four in advanced placement classes) and a really experienced group. They've all started and played football for a long time."

And then there's Maldonado, who now has two 1,000-yard seasons and 2,567 career yards going into tonight's West Suburban Gold visit by Willowbrook.

"Angel's been great - he was the hardest-working guy in the weight room in the offseason," Cerasani said. "He's done all the things he needed to do.

"He wants to be a great football player and you can't coach that. He really wants to be the guy and has gotten better as a student of the game (working with position coach Joe Gagliardi)."

Cerasani said Maldonado is an academic qualifier and "definitely can play football somewhere," which would likely be the Division III level.

Here's the kicker: Not only did Hoffman get quarterback David Gutierrez back from injury last week but junior kicker Nico Crambes is also back at full strength.

"It was good to get our kicker back," Hoffman coach Bill Helzer said of the Division I prospect. "Unfortunately he punted the ball eight times.

"He's doing more and more every week and it's nice to not be hampered with (bad) field position."

Opening-night rivalry closed: The annual football battle for Arlington Heights has ended as Hersey dropped St. Viator from its schedule starting next year.

Viator's 14-0 win this season was its fifth straight in a series which started in 1969 and Hersey leads 16-14.

The series was interrupted from 1978-84 because of off-field concerns and from 1999-2005 because of Viator's schedule in the now-defunct Catholic Metropolitan Conference.