Fremd survives close call with Lake Park

Making the state football quarterfinals has never been easy for Fremd.

But the Vikings' fourth trip to the round of 16 in school history was a display of their physical and mental toughness in Saturday afternoon's Class 8A second-round playoff game at Conant's Feutz Field in Hoffman Estates.

Junior quarterback Rich Concialdi came off the bench to throw 2 touchdown passes and Evan Wright rushed for 186 hard-earned yards to break the 2,000-yard mark. And the top-seeded Vikings' defense came through in the clutch as they held off No. 9 Lake Park 21-14.

"We've played tough games all year," said Fremd senior defensive back Tom Carmody, "and there are tougher games to come."

Fremd (11-0) matched the school record for wins set two years ago and will host next Saturday's quarterfinal against either No. 4 Marist or No. 5 Naperville Central, who played Saturday night.

And the Vikings followed a familiar script as none of their playoff wins in four quarterfinal trips has been by more than 8 points.

"I thought our kids played poised, especially after the opening kickoff of the second half," said Fremd coach Mike Donatucci, "and didn't flinch at all out of that."

Lake Park (8-3) senior standout Artie Monaco opened the second half with a school-record 99-yard kickoff return. He caught his breath to bang the extra point off the left upright and through to tie it at 14-14.

"That was a huge momentum factor and we just kept chugging," said Monaco, who had 2 kickoff and 2 punt returns for touchdowns. "I was running straight toward the wall and all of a sudden, right at the last second I saw a huge opening and made one move to the outside."

But Fremd had been in an even tougher spot a week earlier when it rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat Naperville North.

"There was no doubt in my mind we'd recover from that," Carmody said. "We always come back and we're good at fighting back like that."

First they overcame a drive-killing bad pitchout recovered by Lake Park's Charlie Perrecone at his 21. But a fumbled punt snap gave the ball back to the Vikings at the 27.

Concialdi (5-for-8, 84 yards) hit Josh Jyawook for 8 yards on third-and-6. Four plays later Wright powered in from 2 yards with for his 27th touchdown and a 21-14 lead with 2:42 left in the third.

"We pounded the football and that's what we've done all year," said Wright, who has 2,127 yards rushing. "We stuck with what's working and that's all. Our offensive line (Christian Lombard, Mike Metzen, Mike Rumps, Brian Bobek, Evan Schaeffer and Jack Konopka) does a great job."

Wright started the game-opening 80-yard drive by running the first 10 plays from the wildcat formation. Concialdi came in and got 2 yards on fourth-and-1 and then hit Jyawook for a 24-yard score.

Fremd also went 66 yards in just 411/2 seconds at the end of the half as Concialdi hit Jayme Szafranski for 33 yards and Jeff Diegel for a 15-yard touchdown and 14-7 lead.

"Richie stepped up," Donatucci said.

"I stayed with it and trusted that the coaches are doing what's best for the team," said Concialdi, who has started nine games and thrown for 1,018 yards and 5 TDs. "I just felt really confident in doing what I do best."

Lake Park senior quarterback Larry Nawrot (9-for-17, 101 yards) hit Clay Cooper for a tying 8-yard touchdown a minute before halftime. He directed another late-game drive inside the Fremd 10.

But on second-and-3 from the 7, Alex Van Duch and John Josif stopped Jake McNamara for a yard and Carmody sniffed out a draw to Monaco (17 carries, 80 yards) for no gain.

On fourth down, Nawrot dropped back for a play-action pass to Monaco or Cooper but slipped for a 4-yard loss as Fremd got a big push up front.

"I felt like the momentum was starting up again," said Monaco, who finished the season with 1,038 yards rushing. "It's a game of inches."

Fremd ran out the final 3:04 with Wright getting 2 yards behind the Notre Dame-bound Lombard on fourth-and-2 from its 29 with 23 seconds left.

"I definitely knew we were going for it," Wright said of his 39th and final carry.

Now Fremd will be going for its first semifinal trip next week.

Lake Park went out but Monaco was hardly down about the school's first playoff trip since 2006 and first postseason win last week since 2003.

"Our team is really honored to get back to the playoffs," Monaco said. "We wanted to get back to how things at Lake Park used to be.

"The seniors really led the way and we're all proud of ourselves and each other. There's nothing else you can ask for in a coaching staff and players."