Rolling Meadows wins stunning shootout
All of the offensive electricity was apparently too much for the Rolling Meadows scoreboard to handle as it malfunctioned with 44 seconds to play Friday night.
Visiting York and the Mustangs had already put 91 points on it in their season-opening nonconference football shootout. But the hosts were in the midst of one final power surge on a night where 946 of the 1,148 yards of total offense came through the air at Robert A. Hoese Field.
And with 32 seconds to play, Meadows quarterback Jack Milas threw his sixth touchdown pass and capped an 80-yard drive in 1:22 with a 1-yard toss to energizer Ryan Gundersen. Milas then found a cramping Artie Checchin in the end zone for a 2-point conversion and Kevin Learnan’s interception sealed a stunning 50-49 victory.
“All week and all summer coach (Matt Mishler) told us we could do this,” said Gundersen, who forced a fumble, had an interception, returned a punt for a touchdown and caught 8 passes for 80 yards. “When we were down 21-0 everyone knew we could do this. Our offense is electric and we can score at any time.”
Meadows didn’t even score until there was 2:50 left in the half when Milas hit Checchin for a 14-yard touchdown after Gundersen forced a fumble. Milas showed the right arm he hurt playing baseball in the spring is just fine as he completed 33 of 58 passes for 483 yards.
“We had to execute,” said Meadows junior Tyler Bobowski, who caught 5 passes for 152 yards with touchdowns of 80 and 40 yards.
“All summer long we dominated teams in 7-on-7 and we looked really good in practice,” Milas said. “We knew we had it in us once we got rolling.”
York, which shared the West Suburban Silver title with Glenbard West last year, had leads with the ball of 21-0 late in the first half and 41-28 with 5½ minutes to play. Senior starting quarterback Joe Lucca threw for 200 yards and 3 touchdowns before he was replaced early in the third quarter by junior Andrew Iwaszkiewicz, who was 11-for-24 for 263 yards.
David Byerly caught 6 passes for 266 yards and 4 touchdowns and Jordan Preuss caught 6 passes for 103 yards and three scores. But Mishler was enjoying the view of his head coaching debut at Meadows.
“I was still having fun (down 41-28) because these guys, I just know they’re going to fight back,” Mishler said. “That’s how they are.”
An amazing three-play sequence in the third quarter saw York take a 35-28 lead as Byerly sandwiched touchdown catches of 57 and 73 yards around Bobowski’s 80-yarder. Byerly’s 18-yard catch made it 41-28.
Milas hit John Burkiewicz for a 10-yard score at 5:11 and after a York three-and-out, a big block by Jake Wingo sprang Gundersen for a 62-yard punt return and 42-41 lead with 3:52 left.
York answered as Iwaszkiewicz hit Preuss for a 14-yard touchdown and Mike Despinich for a 2-point conversion with 1:54 left. Milas now had 80 yards to go with only 1 timeout and went 5-for-9 for 79 yards behind Kevin Puleo, Mark Schmid, Alexis Rojas, Matt Long and Nick Leidecker.
Mishler was already planning to go for two during the drive with Checchin, Gundersen and running back Garrett Peterson fighting leg cramps and defensive linemen Raul Cortez and John Garcia out with injuries. Milas hit Checchin in the left corner of the end zone with four defenders in the vicinity to finally finish the scoring in a game that took three hours and 20 minutes and ended at 11:15 p.m.
“Artie is probably the best wide receiver in the conference and I threw it up there and he made a play,” Milas said.
“We were all for it,” Gundersen said with a tired smile of going for two. “That’s our style of play. Go big or go home.”
And Meadows went home with one of its biggest wins in its history.