Maine West clinches 2nd straight Central Suburban North title
As Maine West made the seven mile journey east on Oakton Street to Niles West seeking their second consecutive Central Suburban North title, they would be going up against an opponent who was missing their head coach.
Fourth-year mentor Nick Torresso was placed on leave two weeks ago on Oct. 2. Sophomore coach Billy Oline and freshman coach Kyriako Anastasiadis were subsequently appointed co-coaches by Athletic Director Dana Krilich.
And on Friday night, the Wolves came close to potentially knocking off the Warriors as they fell 21-14 in an exciting gridiron bout at Mike Basrak Stadium in front of a near-capacity crowd.
The victory allowed Maine West (7-1, 4-0) to leave Skokie's West side with their second straight CSL North Division crown and fourth since 2018.
"We overcame a lot of adversity tonight," Warriors coach George Klupchak said. "It's rare that you turn the ball over 3 times and win the game, but if you have a 93-yard drive that takes pretty much the entire third quarter that counteracts that. It gets their defense tired. It gives our team momentum and we were able to do that tonight."
The game-winning drive that Klupchak refers to took 15 plays and ate up the final 7:54 of the third as well as the first 69 ticks of the fourth. Senior Maks Makota (29 carries, 233 yards) took the ball in from the Niles West 1 for his third TD of the game that put them ahead to stay at 21-14.
The turnover troubles that plagued the visitors reared its ugly head with 1:46 left in regulation time as a miscommunication from center to quarterback caused an errant snap that the home team recovered at the Warriors’ 39.
Eight plays later with the pigskin at the Maine West 28, junior LB Lucas Masek lept in front of Wolves QB Nicholas West's pass and grabbed it and proceeded to run it back 64 yards to the Niles West 6 where the Warriors ran off the remaining 60 seconds to preserve the win.
Niles West (4-4, 2-2) got their two TD scores on a 17-yard pass from West to Aahil Khan in the first and a 63-yard Khan jaunt to paydirt in the second. It will need to win at Maine East Friday night in Park Ridge to earn playoff eligibility.
Makota, who suffered a broken back injury late last season, scored on runs of 54 yards in the first and a 71-yarder in the second.
The fourth-year varsity letterman chose to laud his teammates effort instead of his own as the Warriors earned their 16th win in the past 18 games.
"Those guys fought tooth and nail. They fought for 48 minutes," Makota said. "We came into this game knowing it's going to be the hardest 48 minutes of our (season) and we came out victorious. Our offensive line blocking for me (as they did). Our defense for having such an incredible game. All glory to God, all glory to the other team. That's all we can ask for."