Meadows' blanket defense blanks ND

Since its only loss two weeks ago to Buffalo Grove, Rolling Meadows has outscored its opponents 75-0.

That includes Saturday night's victim, Notre Dame, in a 37-0 Class 7A playoff football opener at Meadows.

To a man, the Mustangs (9-1) profess BG did them a favor of sorts with that 12-10 upset.

"I think so," said Ty Kirk, the wide receiver/safety who scored both an offensive and a defensive touchdown against Notre Dame. "We kind of learned that we couldn't afford to let up. They (BG) taught us a good lesson."

"A loss like that, sometimes it can wake up everybody," said quarterback Ben Sabal, who threw for 100 yards and a TD to Kirk and rushed for another 90 and Meadows' first TD.

To be sure, the game statistics reflect the score. Meadows had distinct territorial and possession advantages throughout the game and leveraged them well.

The Mustangs had 14 first downs to the Dons' 5. They had 306 total offense yards to Notre Dame's 65, just 3 rushing thanks to 5 Mustangs tackles for losses.

"Our defense has led us all year," said Kirk, who had a 32-yard, cross-the-field interception return for a TD to close out the scoring.

Trevor Fritz preceded that with a 20-yard TD return on a pass tipped by stand-up outside linebacker Jim Garoppolo.

Both were set up by the outstanding pressure the Meadows defense applied against the pass-happy Dons.

"We knew they passed a lot," said Kirk. "We worked on a lot of pass defense. It worked out great."

The Mustangs held prolific quarterback Zach Abraham to a 10-for-23 night for just 56 yards with 2 picks.

With Paul Hames, Joe Okon, Mikal Johnson and Thomas Davidson applying the pressure, Meadows picked off 3 passes all told.

"I thought our defense was great tonight," said coach Doug Millsaps, who brings his team to once-beaten Lake Zurich next Saturday.

As to the field position his defense kept giving his offense all night, "That's a huge advantage," he said.

Millsaps would like to see his Mustangs be a little more consistent on offense, especially in the passing game (6-for-21, 100 yards, 1 TD, 1 interception).

But with Sabal making what the coach called some great decisions in running the offense, and athletes like Kirk making great over-the-shoulder catches in the end zone on perfectly executed fades, the Mustangs still had more than enough.

Kevin Serna bailed out the offense when it stalled with field goals of 23, 22 and 36 yards, along with a near-miss from 48.

"We got to the red zone a lot," said Kirk. But to beat Lake Zurich, "We're going to have to convert those field goals into touchdowns."

"If they (the defense) keep doing that (giving us short fields)," said Sabal, "they'll give us a good chance to win every week."