A perfect finish for Fremd in win over Palatine
This winning thing doesn't get old for Mike Donatucci and his veteran Fremd coaching staff.
Like winning or sharing the Mid-Suburban West title for a record seventh straight time. Like going undefeated for a fourth time. Like getting what will likely be a highly-placed Class 8A playoff seed, again.
And doing it all by beating your cross-town rival in a showdown for those seed and title positions. The Vikings accomplished all that Friday night in a home-field 31-13 win over Palatine.
Both will proceed to the playoffs now, but Fremd will go as the unbeaten (9-0, 5-0) MSL West champs, while Palatine (7-2, 3-2) will work on bouncing back and being ready for its 8A opener next weekend.
As usual, Fremd did it in prototype fashion, holding off Palatine just long enough to emerge from a 7-7 first half in which it was thoroughly outplayed to run all over the Pirates in a 17-0 third quarter to seal the win.
Doing the running, as usual, was Evan Wright, 31 times for 240 yards, setting the single-season school record and pounding the Pirates into submission behind his mammoth offensive line of Mike Rumps, Mike Metzen, Brian Bobek, Christian Lombard, Jack Konopka and Evan Schaeffer.
"We just came out and said we needed to change the game up front," said Wright, after Palatine out-gained them, ran far more plays from scrimmage and kept Wright off the field in the first half. Cody Bobbit, Joe Pelnar and the Pirate offensive line dominated the play and the clock and they scored on a fairly daring, fourth-down, 2-yard pass from Bobbitt to Dan Haze.
And then disappeared.
Fremd controlled the ball and the clock in the second half. Wright gained 200 of his yards in the second half, 31 on a third-quarter, game-breaking TD run and 52 more on a game-sealing TD jolt in the fourth. Even Justin Wallace, the linebacker-blocking back, got his first carry of the year and turned it into a 16-yard second-half TD after a Tom Carmody pickoff.
Donatucci still shakes his head in disbelief over the line's prowess and the team's ability to lift its game to the occasion.
"The chemistry of this group, that's our greatest asset," he said. The defense too. Jayme Szafranski had an early pick and a return to Palatine's 1, from where Wright scored standing up to offset Palatine's otherwise dominant first-half performance.
"I thought so," Pirate coach Tyler Donnelly said of his team's dominant play in the first half. "Give Fremd credit. I thought we did well, played hard. Overall, I was pleased with how we defended them. We held them down in the first half."
But not the second. Fremd open the third quarter with a 7-play, 67-yard TD drive and clearly grabbed the momentum.
"We talked about - who's going to make the big hit?" Donatucci said. Defensively, Szafranski, Mertes, Cameron Radis, Alexander Vanduch, Wallace and Co. took turns clamping down on Palatine's running game in the second half. Bobbitt's slick 158 yards passing, primarily in the second half, were mostly in scramble-from-behind mode.
Mostly because Fremd, and Wright, controlled the ball.
"I have a great offensive line," he reiterated, noting that he'll be bringing them doughnuts, as usual, for this morning's film session.
He hopes there's a few more dozen in store.