Fremd is all Wright

Fremd got it right in the second half.

With Evan Wright rushing for a career-high 303 yards on 39 carries and scoring 4 touchdowns, the Vikings rallied from a 14-10 halftime deficit to pull away for a 31-14 triumph, spoiling Conant's Homecoming Friday night at Charles O. Feutz Field.

The Vikings used touchdown runs of 48, 2 and 20 yards by Wright in the second half and pitched a 21-0 shutout to improve to 7-0 and 3-0 in the Mid-Suburban West.

Conant, which scored on Kyle Klosowicz's 22-yard run and a 20-yard pass from Rico Prestia (10-for-25, 149 yards) to Garrett Gatz in the first half, is now 2-5 and 1-2.

Wright's big night included some beautiful runs in which he reversed field for big gains.

"That's the offensive line," Wright said. "They over-pursued which opened up the cutback. It doesn't even seem to me like I had 303 yards. I'm still shocked."

The Cougars did their best to shock the Vikings, who turned things around at halftime.

"I don't want to say we underestimated them but we started out so strong (Wright scored on a 67-yard TD run on Fremd's first offensive play) that that may have made us a little lackadasicial," said Fremd senior Jayme Szafranski. "But we took over in the second half when we needed to."

In the final two quarters, Szafranski and defense didn't let the Cougars out of their own end of the field until the final minute of the game.

In fact, the Cougars never ran a play beyond their own 19 until less than five minutes remained.

"Field position hurt us," said Cougars coach Bill Modelski. "We fought and fought and fought but just couldn't get out of our own end. I'm real proud of these kids. We went after them. We weren't afraid.

"But Fremd is a real good team. They are well-coached and they don't give you any freebies."

The Fremd linemen, players such as Brian Bobek, Evan Schaeffer, Michael Rumps, Michael Metzen, Christian Lombard and tight end Jack Konopka, gave Wright lots of running room.

"We just came out in second half and decided what we needed to do and picked it up," said Schaeffer, who also punted three times for the Vikings.

Fremd coach Mike Donatucci credited the Cougars.

"They had us on the run in the first half," he said. "Their offensive coordinator Corey Olson did a nice job and we had to adjust to things."

Wright gained 123 yards in the first half and 180 in the second half.

"Unfortunately, I saw maybe seven plays on offense because the defense was struggling," Donatucci said. "He (Wright) doesn't do it by himself, but he is a difference-maker."

Conant's hopes were finally dashed with less than four minutes left. The Cougars picked up a first down at their own 43 on a 13-yard pass from Prestia to Brian Wadsworth. But on third-and-10, Fremd's Andrew Mertes came up with a big sack for a loss of 7 yards. An incomplete pass on fourth down turned the ball back to the Vikes, who five plays later found the end zone on Wright's fourth touchdown.

"We wore down," Modelski said. "Their defense really did a nice job defending us."