Northwest football notes: Streak-busting Hoffman

Bill Helzer experienced the pain of a long losing streak as a player when his North Park College football team didn't win a game during his junior and senior seasons.

So that's why it was so gratifying for Helzer to see his Hoffman Estates players finally celebrate last Friday after a 23-game losing streak ended with a 17-14 victory at Conant.

“It was unbelievable and it was great,” Helzer said of the streak's emphatic ending on Niko Crambes' 38-yard field goal as time expired. “I don't think we could have taken another heartbreaking loss.”

Also gratifying was the way Hoffman returned to the win column for the first time since it beat Elk Grove 19-6 in Week 2 of the 2008 season. Two defensive stops one on an interception by sophomore Zach Hommowon led to a flawless 60-yard drive directed by quarterback David Gutierrez to set up Crambes for the game-winner.

And everything was perfect from Boris Tomas' snap to Mike Stanford's hold to Crambes' kick.

“You can't duplicate the pressure of a 23-game losing streak,” Helzer said. “But I think it would have been good from 60 (yards) because he had so much energy. It was higher than the goal posts.”

Playing better in a 17-6 Week 7 loss to Barrington has the Hawks looking to continue their strong finish when they host Schaumburg tonight. Helzer would love to see them take a different streak into next season.

“Going through it (at North Park) motivated me to be a coach,” Helzer said. “You deal with a little differently and I shared with the kids you never give up and you keep on fighting.

“It was a lesson I didn't quite understand then and the last two years have challenged me as a coach. But they never quit. In my book they're winners.”

Different look for Grens' Meyer: After going with long flowing hair for close to 10 months, Elk Grove senior quarterback-safety Nick Meyer went back to the buzz-cut look before last week's Mid-Suburban East showdown with Prospect.

“It's back to business,” Meyer said of the new look with the playoffs looming after the 42-41 overtime loss.

That also means cleaning up some things going into tonight's regular-season finale with Rolling Meadows for the postseason. Both of the Grens' losses were in overtime.

“There were some mistakes made on both sides of the ball and it's the team that overcomes them that wins,” Meyer said. “We overcame them at the end but we have to finish it and that's what we didn't do (against Prospect). That's something we really have to work on.”

The way Elk Grove returned to work resonated with coach Brian Doll after such a tough loss on an incomplete 2-point conversion pass.

“On Saturday the kids felt they played really well and fought hard so they weren't down,” Doll said. “They wanted to watch the last play and I was impressed by that.

“Nick came to my office right after he was done (with an interview) and said, ‘Should I have run it?' He's a competitor and he wants to know if he made a mistake.”

Doll told Meyer he did the right thing on the play. Doll's bigger concern was Prospect going 10-for-14 on third-down conversions.

“We were bad on third down,” Doll said. “Our defense was so gassed after that that third quarter and that was our big focus this week.

“Everything we've done as a team has been third-down scenarios because that's where we have to get better.”

Knights take no chances: As big as last Friday's MSL East game at Elk Grove was last week, the prospect of even bigger games coming up saw Prospect coach Brent Pearlman keep senior standout Peter Bonahoom on the sideline with an ankle injury.

“I really thought Pete was going to play and I was confident Pete was going to play,” said Pearlman. “He looked good but I didn't think he looked great to me.

“This was a very important game but I feel there are more important games coming up and we want to make sure he goes into the playoffs healthy.”

Pearlman joked that “I don't think Pete's happy with me” about the decision. But he did punt twice and made an impact in the fourth quarter when he batted an Elk Grove onside kick back to teammate Beau Zanca.

“Bonahoom contributes,” Prospect assistant coach Joe Rupslauk shouted and laughed on the sideline as Bonahoom smiled and was congratulated. “He did something.”

Pearlman said he expected Bonahoom to play tonight against Buffalo Grove.

Broncos ready to charge back: Barrington coach Joe Sanchez didn't think his team needed a loss or a wake-up call after it was knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten 26-12 last week at Fremd.

But if it helps the Broncos toward a long postseason run then Sanchez has no problem with a loss.

“Like everyone else I want to win them all,” Sanchez said. “But I understand something like this at this time could have a more meaningful effect.

“In the same respect we have to go out and demonstrate we did learn something from it. I firmly believe we will.

It won't be an easy challenge tonight against 4-4 Palatine and quarterback Cody Bobbit.

“It sounds simple but it's making plays you're supposed to when you need them,” Sanchez said. “We've done a great job of moving it but now we have to finish. Palatine has played well against every team and I expect it to be a great ballgame.”

Wildcats hunt down big-game Bison: A six-game losing streak didn't have Wheeling coach Dave Dunbar seeing a lot of players who lost interest.

The Wildcats reward was a 14-7 upset victory which did some serious damage to Buffalo Grove's playoff hopes.

“A lot of times you get to this point in the season and you're 1-4, 1-5, 1-6, and guys start to lose you,” Dunbar said. “You can coach and try to keep them focused but sometimes they start to check out.

“With this group it hasn't been that way. They've been hanging with us, working hard, staying focused and putting themselves in position to win games.”

Which led to last Friday's win where Jon Powell stuffed a fake punt in the fourth quarter to set up quarterback Tyler Brady's game-winning run.

“The kids just worked really hard throughout the week and put it all together,” Dunbar said. “We've been playing well all year but it was nice to put it together at that right time.”

Cleanup time for Saxons: Schaumburg will be trying to head into the playoffs on a three-game roll when it visits Hoffman Estates tonight.

But the Saxons know a few things have to be taken care of to get on a postseason roll.

“A couple of little foolish things turned out to be huge deals down the stretch,” said Schaumburg coach Mark Stilling. “We have to be a little more consistent mentally and that's been our focus this week. The good part about it is we're playing an option football team so a little bit of discipline would be nice.

“Every game I've seen on film, Hoffman is competing and doing a ton of good things.”

The Saxons have cut down their mistakes offensively the last two weeks. And Stilling liked what he saw on the final drive of last week's win over Palatine when only six defensive starters were on the field.

Junior reserve safety Nick Casey broke up a pass and senior Jim Kazeos played a key part even though he had 10 defensive snaps all season.

“Some guys got to step up who normally don't get the opportunity,” Stilling said. “It was a chance for us to play team defense and for kids to step up who aren't normally on the field at a critical time in huge situations.”

Rough finish for Cougars: A promising start with a pair of victories has turned into a six-game losing streak for Conant going into tonight's finale at Fremd.

Turnovers at critical times and two touchdowns wiped out by what Conant coach Bill Modelski said were legitimate penalties were costly in a 17-14 loss to Hoffman.

“We weren't very good Friday night and we didn't play our best game,” Modelski said. “They played hard and came after us so you have to give them credit.”

But the season has hardly been a total loss to Modelski. He thinks offensive lineman Kenny Kalish and linebacker John Maevski have played as well as anyone in the MSL at their positions.

At times the Cougars have looked good offensively with quarterback Matt Cullen and a variety of running backs. Consistency has been the issue with a young team.

“You see teams win sometimes with young players, but in general those young players better be pretty emotionally mature,” Modelski said. “In a lot of cases that's more important than the physical stuff. Even some of our seniors playing didn't have any experience.”