Stevenson marches past Mundelein
After needing a late comeback to avoid a huge upset against Wauconda last week, host Stevenson wanted to make sure it did not have a letdown against Mundelein on Friday night in its North Suburban Lake Division regular-season football finale.
The Patriots deferred on the opening kickoff and that choice seemed to backfire on them as the upset-minded Mustangs marched 66 yards to take a 7-0 lead 4:21 into the contest.
But Stevenson (7-2, 5-1) almost immediately turned the tables on Mundelein as the Patriots built a 21-7 lead early in the second quarter before rolling to a 41-14 victory to wind up in a three-way tie for first place in the Lake Division with Lake Zurich and Lake Forest.
Mundelein (0-9, 0-6) was sparked by starting quarterback Gable Leppert on its opening drive as Leppert hit teammate Drew Malcolm with a 25-yard pass completion before connecting with Connor O’Donoghue for a 17-yard TD pass moments later. O’Donoghue had Stevenson defensive back Anthony Bozin all over him in the left corner of the end zone, but he was still able to come up with the TD catch in the left corner of the end zone before Jordan Bregenzer’s extra point gave the Mustangs an early 7-0 lead.
Bozin got his revenge on the ensuing kickoff as he bolted 71 yards down to the Mundelein 8 to set up the Patriots’ first touchdown.
Three plays later, Kevin Foley scored on a 1-yard TD run as he carried the ball all three times on the very short scoring drive. Stevenson starting quarterback Matt Micucci kicked the extra point to tie the score at 7-7 with 6:15 left in the first quarter.
Mundelein’s next drive was spoiled right away as Stevenson defensive back Matt Morrissey picked off a Leppert pass and raced 23 yards with the interception return for a 14-7 lead with 5:26 left in the first quarter.
Senior running back Mike Ling (105 yards on 27 carries) proved to be a real workhorse for the Pats’ offense which stuck mainly with their ground attack for the majority of the game.
After a 30-yard pass from Micucci to Troy Radtke put the ball at the Mundelein 22-yard-line, Ling scored on the first play of the second quarter from 1-yard out before Jeff Smith’s extra point made the score 21-7 three seconds into the second quarter.
A time-consuming 17-play drive on Stevenson’s next possession ended with Ling scoring on a 3-yard run to cap the 59-yard march. A botched extra point kept the score at 27-7 at halftime as Ling had 18 of his career-high 27 carries in the first half.
“That one drive was like 18 plays long and I was dying after five,” said Ling. “We wanted to pound the ball up the middle most of the time and we ran the ball through the two hole at least a third of the time.”
Leppert sustained a knee injury early in the second quarter and he never returned as Evangelos Roumanidakis took over at quarterback from late in the second quarter on for Mundelein.
If the Mustangs had any hopes of making a big comeback in the second half those thoughts were shattered when Stevenson junior Chris Peters returned the third-quarter kickoff 93 yards for the touchdown and a 34-7 advantage.
Mundelein did come up with a huge special teams play as Nate Avis blocked Alex Martin’s punt to give the Mustangs the ball on the Pats’ 6.
It wasn’t easy, but the fourth straight carry by Mundelein full back Matt Heppert was the charm as he scored on fourth-and-goal from the 1 to cut the gap to 34-14 with 5:19 left in the third quarter.
Stevenson reserve quarterback Sean O’Connell scored on a 5-yard keeper on fourth down as the third-quarter clock expired for a 41-14 cushion. Stevenson reserve Dan Sacketos had 54 yards on 6 rushes.
“I’m very proud of our guys, all year we’ve worked hard and it was a great team victory tonight,” said Stevenson coach Bill McNamara. “We wanted to keep the ball on the ground and get our running game going and the big guys up front did a great job. Our defense has been stingy all year and we’re proud of the way we played defensively.”