Schaumburg's D delivers at Highland Park

The Schaumburg defense came to play Friday night, holding the Highland Park offense in check for a 34-7 victory.

"We just had the will to win the game," Schaumburg defensive end Tyler Fredrickson said. "Everyone said we were going to lose by 40 points. … Our one goal was to stop the run. Stop number 15 (D.J. Penick)."

Outside of two runs, Penick couldn't find much room to run. He ran 45 yards on his first carry, but the Saxons toughened up, holding him to 16 yards on his next nine.

The defense had been a big focus for Schaumburg after giving up at least 28 points every game this season. The players responded, forcing a fumble on the Giants' first drive. The takeaway was the fourth in the past two games.

Penick, however, found a hole late in the first half, reeling off a 40-yard run, followed by a 4-yard touchdown.

The game was tied going into the half, but the defense again held strong, not allowing another score. Penick had 10 yards rushing in the second half and finished with 125. Eighty-five of those yards came on two runs.

This was the first test the Giants' offense has faced all season after averaging 45 points in its first three games on their way to an undefeated record.

"The line is my family," Fredrickson said. "Once we work together no one can run on us."

Schaumburg (3-1) running back Jordan Salgado said seeing his defense make stop after stop helped get him going.

Salgado finished with 121 yards and 2 touchdowns on the ground. He added another touchdown on a screen pass to give the Saxons a 14-7 lead in the third quarter.

"The line killed in the second half," Salgado said. "Offensively we stuck in there. We have a lot of grit."

Hezekiah Trotter added a change of pace to the run game, rushing for 145 yards and 2 touchdowns.

"The thing about (Trotter) and Jordan is they are finishing runs better and they see the edge very, very well," Schaumburg coach Mark Stilling said. "Both of them did a nice job of reading it all night."

The offense had a scare late in the game with quarterback Justin Perez going down with an injury. Perez left the field on his own power, but did not return to the game.

The defense made it easy for the offense, holding the Giants off the scoreboard in the second half.

"We talked about keeping it simple," Stilling said. "Number 1 is do your job. Number 2 is trust each other. I think we started to see evidence in that in the second half last week, but start to finish tonight it was a tremendous team effort."

The Saxons will look for another strong defensive effort next week against Conant for homecoming.