Maine East tops Maine West, snaps 15-game losing streak
Maine West came in sputtering, having lost its last nine games, but a shifty Maine East rushing attack had streak-busting plans of its own Friday night.
The Blue Demons snapped a 15-game slide as they rode the heels of quarterback George Zakaria to a 27-7 Central Suburban North victory in Des Plaines.
Zakaria scored after scampers of 42 and 8 yards to give Maine East an early lead. Maine West (0-8, 0-4) running back Tristan Bakulinski then knifed his way to a 40-yard touchdown run to take a momentary lead, but that was all the Warriors could muster offensively.
Maine East (1-7, 1-3) took advantage of several Warriors' penalties and turnovers. After a Maine West fumble to start the first half on a botched handoff, Blue Demons bruiser Javed Lukovic rumbled in to the end zone from 16 yards out to put the Warriors out of reach.
"We are still looking for that win," Maine West coach Chris Hare said. "Hats off to Maine East. They dominated the line of scrimmage. Coming in to tonight's game, we knew that was where the battle was going to be won. The other guys wanted it more."
Hare said it was a challenging transition with having two new quarterbacks on the field after starting quarterback Jake Korbecki sat out.
"It definitely wasn't something we were planning on," he said. "Danny O'Hara played his hardest but got pretty banged up. Then our sophomore quarterback (Matt Swanson) played great in a tough situation."
Maine East coach Gabe Corey was met with a Gatorade bath at the game's conclusion.
"We had to switch some kids around since we had some key injuries last week," Corey said. "But I told our seniors that our time is limited ... so let's finish the year the way we want to and make some memories that can last a lifetime."
Christian Liberty 41, Kirkland Hiawatha 21: Christian Liberty (1-7, 1-7) set a single-game school scoring record and won the second game in the program's three-year history in the Northeastern Athletic Conference matchup in Kirkland.