Schaumburg grinds out big victory
Talk about clock management.
Clinging to a 7-point lead at Conant, Schaumburg chewed up 9:16 of the game's final 9:55 to fend off the Cougars and preserved a 21-7 victory in the Mid-Suburban West.
Schaumburg (6-3, 4-1) drove 98 yards on the 20-play drive before Warren Brewer (18 carries, 165 yards) scored his second touchdown of the game on a 1-yard run.
"Our offensive line did an outstanding job on the drive," said Schaumburg coach Mark Stilling of Jonathan Moore, Nicholas Nykaza, Richard Barnes, Mario Echevarria and Eddy Batres.
"(Mark) Iannotti, did a good job of clock management and the backs did in securing the ball. He has done this before so it's not new to him.
"We focused this week on improving. We wanted to be playing our best football in October."
The Saxons went up 7-0 on a 61-yard, 13-play drive that culminated with Iannotti tossing a 23-yard touchdown pass to Eric Carlson with 9:41 left in the half.
Conant (2-7, 1-4) tied the score at 7-7 with 51 seconds left in the half when Kyle Klosowicz (25 carries, 85 yds) scored his 15th touchdown of the year on a 2-yard run.
Quarterback Rico Prestia (7-for-10, 102 yards) was 4-for-4 on the drive for 85 yards including a nifty 40-yard reception by Garrett Gatz to the Saxons' 7.
Schamburg went ahead for good on Brewer's 57-yard scoring burst with 9:53 left in the third quarter.
"I just broke out to the left side and found my way down the sideline," said Brewer. "This was a big game for two reasons. One it was Conant and second is that we needed the win for the playoffs."
The defense led by Danny Malik, Darrel Williams, Pat Derbak, Patrick Felde and Josh Marchok, held the Cougars to 222 yards for the game and 73 in the second half.
"We had to be aware of Klosowicz," said Malik. "We used the 'Red Swarm' defense. No matter where you are on the field we had to swarm to him. We had to get stronger with our defense. We could keep making the offense score points. We've come together as a defensive unit."
Conant coach Bill Modelski took the season-ending loss hard.
"I'm disappointed," Modelski said. "Their last drive kind of culminated our season. We'd hang in there and then something would happen. There's just alot of things that went wrong for us. I feel for the seniors. They are really a bunch of good players. I wish things could have turned out better."