Fremd finishes run to playoffs
Fremd's quest for five victories, and the playoff berth that goes with them, was completed on Friday night against visiting Conant.
Once again it was the Vikings' defense turning in a dominant effort in a 31-10 win to clinch a 16th straight playoff berth and a share of its eighth straight Mid-Suburban West title with Schaumburg.
“The game was intense,” Fremd senior defensive tackle Jeff Parham said. “We came out ready, fired up like it's our time and we need to get there. I felt we had it. We put our best foot forward, stepped up, put the defense on the line and stopped them.”
Before a 43-yard touchdown run by Conant's Jacobi Sims with under four minutes to play, the Vikings' defense had allowed 105 yards of offense and only 3 points.
“We know we have a good defense,” said Fremd (5-4, 4-1) defensive lineman Jack Konopka, who had 2 sacks and a touchdown catch. “Our defensive attitude was basically that our backs are against the wall and that we need to win one to get into the playoffs. It was all or nothing for us.”
Parham missed Fremd's win over Barrington last week with a concussion he suffered the week before against Palatine. Early in Friday's game he came up with a couple tackles for loss to help ignite the Vikings.
“I felt it was very important to the team,” Parham said of his early play. “I was excited to come back and just dominate on the field. And to help our team reach our goal of making the playoffs again.”
Fremd began the season 1-4, and allowed 108 points in those games. That isn't a vast amount of points to allow, but obviously the Vikings weren't winning.
During its four-game winning streak Fremd has allowed just 38 points.
“We kind of simplified things on defense,” Konopka said. “We found out what we are good at, and we're doing it 100 miles per hour.”
Conant's John Maevski made a 24-yard field goal with under a minute left in the first half to make it a 10-3 game after a previous attempt, which was blocked, was wiped out by a referee's inadvertent whistle.
Conant (2-7, 0-5) was set to get the ball to open the second half, but London Dokubo fumbled after a big hit from Adam Mertes. Michael Sahli recovered for the Vikings, giving them the ball on Conant's 20-yard line.
The Vikings capitalized four plays later with a 1-yard touchdown run by Justin Wallace (25 carries, 165 yards).
“That was it,” Fremd coach Mike Donatucci said. “We talked about the longer we let these guys hang around, the tougher it is going to be. We got the big play by Mertes and Sahli, and that's it.”
After an encouraging 2-0 start to the season, Conant finished with 7 consecutive losses.
“We're disappointed,” Conant coach Bill Modelski said. “We were hoping for better. You always are. Everybody in the summer is looking at things with real optimism. As long as we play hard I'm OK with it all.”
The Vikings will now shift their focus to the playoffs, where Donatucci says the pressure is totally different than the regular season. He adds, though, that the Vikings have been under that same pressure the past four weeks.
“When you've got coach Donatucci you don't relish things for real long,” Konopka said. “We'll celebrate it tonight and over the weekend, but come Monday it's back to the drawing boards and back to work.”
For the 16th straight time, the Vikings will head back to work the Monday after the final regular season game with hopes of making a run in the postseason.