Elk Grove cleans up on senior night
The terrain remained sloppy after a week's rain when Elk Grove squared off against visiting Hersey in a Mid-Suburban East football game.
But on Elk Grove's senior night, the Grenadiers felt squeaky clean after sending off their 2010 graduates with a 31-6 victory to remain in contention for the playoffs.
The Grenadiers (5-3, 2-2) will visit Buffalo Grove (5-3, 3-1) next Friday with the winner assured of a postseason trip.
Elk Grove struck first after a 42-yard fake punt run for a touchdown by senior linebacker Kyle Pfister, catching the Huskies (0-8, 0-3) off guard.
After futile attempts on the rush game, the Grenadiers, led by junior quarterback Nick Meyer (15-for-22, 259 yards, 3 touchdowns) seemed to always find the open man to get the first down. Meyer connected with senior Matt McEnery (4 catches, 119 yards) in the end zone on two separate occasions.
"Coach (Brian Doll) told us to keep our heads forward, and we needed a win coming in," said McEnery. "Me and (Nick) Meyer have been friends since we were little, so it helps us connect on the field."
At half the score was 28-0 after Meyer completed another touchdown pass to Grenadiers running back Mike Wary.
"I think the thing is we wanted to send our seniors out on a good night," Doll said. "We had great concentration by McEnery. (Eddie) Stahl and (Joey) Bishoff had their first starts and did really well. Meyer has gotten more comfortable throwing the ball.
"We brought in (assistant coach) Jeff Aspito in from Driscoll, and he has done a great job and has a great knowledge of the game."
The Huskies, who are ailing with injuries, had many great defensive stands. They had two red zone stops and held the Grenadiers to 10 points. On the offensive side, junior running back-quarterback Alex Vaile ran for 102 yards and junior running back Zach Johnson ran for 110 yards and a touchdown. But the defense was on the field for much too long, and fatigue became the big factor for the loss.
"We gave up too many big plays, too many major pass plays, which is uncharacteristic of our secondary," said Huskies coach Mark Gunther, "Our defense fought hard - but you have to give credit to the Elk Grove offense."