Breaks don’t go Palatine’s way in season-ending loss at Yorkville

A pair of teams searching for win No. 5 met each other in the opening round of the 7A playoffs on Friday night in Yorkville.

First-year Palatine coach Chad Bobbit brought his Pirates down to Kendall County hoping to win his first postseason game.

That will have to wait until next season, as the Foxes (5-5) rode tipped passes, trick plays, and takeaways to a convincing 41-14 victory.

“Hats off to [Yorkville] for making those huge plays,” said Bobbit. “They created momentum for themselves, and, you know, we didn't really get that momentum back.”

The ball simply would not bounce Palatine’s (4-6) way and Yorkville capitalized repeatedly.

“It seems like the whole season we've kind of had that ball bounce the wrong way,” said Foxes coach Dan McGuire. “Today, it seemed like we had a couple of them go our way.”

Yorkville led 10-0 early after a field goal and a 1-yard Max Delgado touchdown run.

The Foxes then recovered a fumble on the next kickoff and quickly stretched the lead to three possessions when Delgado lobbed a pass downfield to Kam Micou.

The ball was tipped by Pirates defender Anthony Kurey and fell directly into Micou’s lap to make it 17-0.

“Physical mistakes happen,” said Bobbit. “What’s really important when you have a physical mistake is you just have to move on to the next play.”

It looked like Palatine had done that, as its defense stepped up and forced the Yorkville offense into a fourth-and-18 situation deep in Pirates territory before the half.

However, McGuire dialed up some playoff magic.

He called for a fake field goal that sent Foxes receiver Joel Castillo sprinting through the line and into the open field.

“They executed and our kids got excited about it,” said McGuire. “You got to do things to keep kids interested and just doing something little like that helped our practice and kept the kids engaged.”

The home crowd roared as the gutsy play call set up a Gavin Geegan score to make it 24-0 at the break.

Palatine was able to get on the board twice in the second half, first on a Brandon Martino pass to Brennan Wright, then on a short yardage Jayden Evans run.

Evans, a senior, is headed to play defensive back at Northern Illinois next fall. He helped spearhead a group that Bobbit will miss leading.

“We did some really hard things this summer and some really hard things this year,” said Bobbit. “They embraced it, and that's why they earned what they did. Super thankful to be a part of that.”

Yorkville will head to Arlington Heights next week to face unbeaten Hersey, led by quarterback Jake Nawrot, a Kentucky recruit.

“We’ve played a good schedule this year,” said McGuire. “We played a lot of good teams, but Hersey’s very good as well. We have just got to stay within ourselves and play Yorkville football.”