Palatine pulls away from Wheeling

Midway through the second quarter, visiting Palatine seemed to be taking control of its Mid-Suburban League crossover football game Friday night at Wheeling.

Senior quarterback Cody Bobbit took off on a 60-yard touchdown run - the longest of his career - and the Pirates led 21-7 with less than four minutes left in the half.

However, with more than half of the third quarter still remaining, the pesky Wildcats charged back and went ahead 23-21 when the Pirates were called for intentional grounding in the end zone, resulting in a safety.

But it was not a safe lead.

Bobbit's offense and the Pirates' defense were far from done and recovered smartly for a 37-23 victory, their second in three games this season.

Taking advantage of a roughing-the-passer call on a fourth-and-20 play just moments earlier, Bobbit raced 4 yards around right end for a TD which made it 29-23 with 11:20 left in the game.

Following an interception by sophomore Jesse Bobbit, the Pirates went back to work again and Cody Bobbit engineered a 62-yard drive that ended when the quarterback found Jimmy Smearman in the end zone for a 15- yard strike. Bobbit proceeded to run for his second straight 2-point conversion for the final margin.

Wheeling marched to the Palatine 13 before Trevor Walzak had a big interception with 3:12 left in the game.

"I think Cody played one of his best games ever," said Pirates coach Tyler Donnelly. "He dominated the game and did things I haven't seen him do."

He did those things behind the offensive line of Joe Landeck, C.J. Machnik, Nathan Gerdes, Josh Baldus and Tyler Farris and fullback Wesley Hunt.

"The offensive line did great and the receivers caught the ball," Cody Bobbit said. "Even though it was 21-21 at half, we still had confidence. We hadn't even punted yet (and Pirates never did). We had a bunch of confidence and it showed."

Smearman, who rushed for 144 yards, scored on a 37-yard run to give the Pirates a 7-0 lead before Cody hit his brother Jesse for an 11-yard TD pass and 14-0 lead early in the second quarter.

"That was awesome," Cody said of his first TD strike to his younger brother.

Junior quarterback Tyler Brady was 20-of-34 for 232 yards for Wheeling (1-2) with a 15-yard touchdown run and a 37-yard TD pass to Billy Jaime.

"Our guys continue to play hard," said Wildcats coach Dave Dunbar. "Considering Palatine as one of the best in the West, we played right with them. We are most proud that our kids play hard on every single play no matter what the situation is."

Brandon Yacu and Luke Smith each had fumble recoveries which led to Wheeling's two late first-half TDs.

Dunbar felt the offensive line of Chris Johnson, Matt Robbins, Matt Hoffman, Rob Sandoval and Andre Bogouchevitch enabled Brady to complete passes to five different receivers.

"And Tyler and Eddie (Scanlon, who had 86 receiving yards) really stepped up, too," Dunbar said. "We played as a unit and it all starts with that."