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Too Much Matt Alviti As Evanston Falls To Maine South

Alviti accounts for six touchdowns and Maine South blows out Evanston 49-8.

By Steven Jung | Email the author | October 2, 2010

After losses in its first two games, it is evident that Maine South (4-2, 2-0) has found its form.

Following a 49-8 thumping at Evanston (3-3, 0-2) Friday night, the Hawks have won their last four games by a combined score of 195-29. Matt Alviti was the star amongst the Maine South stars accounting for six of his team's seven touchdowns, four passing and two rushing. Throughout the game, Maine South looked like they were one play ahead of the Evanston Wildkits.

"We had a great scouting report from our coaches," Maine South head coach David Inserra said. "We were very focused in practice, definitely had our kids' attention. It seemed like we were one step of them each time on defense."

It would be another short evening for the Hawks quarterback and Maine South's first-string players. Alviti was impressive going 18-for-21, 307 yards passing and the aforementioned six touchdowns, all-coming in the first half. At halftime, Maine South led 41-0.

"He has the tools to be very good," Inserra said of Alviti. "He needs to continue to develop and understand the mental part of the game."

Alviti's touchdowns came on passes of 37, 39, 10 and 65 yards and his rushing scores came on 17 and 1 yard. His two favorite wide receiver targets were seniors Scott Derrick (7 rec, 125 yards, 2 TD) and Luke Mottley (4 rec, 104 yards, 2 TD).

The scoring began midway through the first when Alviti connected with Mottley on a 37-yard strike. Alviti then ran in a 17-yard touchdown to make the score 13-0 in favor of Maine South after one quarter.

In the second quarter, Alviti threw three touchdown passes to Derrick and once again threw a touchdown pass to Mottley. At the end of the second quarter, Alviti scored his sixth touchdown on a 1-yard touchdown run.

Along with Alviti's huge game, Maine South's defense was very good. Evanston failed to score an offensive touchdown and the depth of the Hawks was on full display. Second string defensive back Don Allegretti had three interceptions.

"It's been a season of injuries," Inserra said of his team. "But guys keep stepping up."

The Wildkits made their breakthrough on a Colton Warner fumble recovery for a touchdown. If there is something Evanston can take away from this game, they tied the second half 8-8.

Maine South returns home next week in a game against Waukegan (2-3, 1-0) while Evanston travels to New Trier (4-2, 1-1).

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Northwestern Holds On And Improves to 4-0 With Win Over Central Michigan

The Wildcats nearly blew a 30-13 lead midway through the 4th quarter, but hung on in a thriller.

By Steven Jung | Email the author | September 25, 2010

After a win that put Northwestern at 4-0, you would think Wildcat head coach Pat Fitzgerald would have nothing but good things to say about his club. That was not exactly the case following Northwestern's narrow 30-25 win over the Central Michigan Chippewas (2-2) in Evanston on Friday.

On a day where the Stanley Cup made a visit to Ryan Field, Northwestern did not finish the game like champions. They very nearly blew a 30-13 lead in the fourth. Central Michigan got within one score at the 1:11 mark but failed to recover an onside kick attempt to give Northwestern the victory.

"To win another game the rest of the year, we're going to have to execute a lot better," the head coach said. "We're going to have to play with more focus and discipline. When we do that, I think we'll be a team that's tough to beat."

The Wildcats scored first on a 24-yard touchdown pass from Dan Persa to Jeremy Ebert midway through the first. The Chippewas responded on the following drive when Cody Wilson got credited with a 31-yard touchdown run. Both teams had their PAT's blocked following the first quarter touchdowns.

The teams went into halftime tied 13-13 after the clubs traded touchdowns in the 2^nd quarter. Northwestern scored on a 1-yard run from Jacob Schmidt and Central Michigan replied with a 16-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Radcliff to Carl Volny.

Persa, who went 23-of-30, 230 yards, 2 touchdowns, 1 interception, threw his first interception of the season midway through the second inside the red zone. He took blame for it afterwards. "It was a bad throw, a bad decision and I don't want to do that again. I shouldn't have thrown it there anyway, as soon as I let it go, I knew it was going to be picked."

The 3^rd quarter was dominated by Northwestern. On four 3^rd quarter drives for Central Michigan, they had two 3-and-outs, one interception and a five play drive. The Wildcats scored 10 points in the third and their final drive in the quarter set up a touchdown early in the 4^th quarter. A field goal from Stefan Demos and Ebert's second touchdown reception, this one a 25-yard catch, gave Northwestern a 23-13 lead after three quarters.

Northwestern scored on the third play of the 4^th quarter when Schmidt took a handoff and raced down the left sideline for a 13-yard touchdown, his second of the game. At this point, Northwestern looked like it was in complete control.

The Chippewas would not go down that easily. Volny recorded his second touchdown, this one on a 2-yard run. The extra point was once again blocked, but with 7:36 remaining, Central Michigan had life down 30-19.

Central Michigan's defense came up big getting a defensive stop on the following Northwestern drive. The Chippewas took advantage of the momentum with an eight play, 64-yard touchdown drive capped off with Radcliff connecting with Kito Poblah for a 25-yard touchdown. Radcliff finished the game 29-of-43, 347 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.

On the onside kick attempt, Brett Hartmann's effort went straight to Northwestern wide receiver Drake Dunsmore and Ryan Field exhaled knowing they escaped barely.

Fitzgerald said after the game the team needs to play better during the conference season. "When we make plays, we execute, we stick together and we play with discipline, we're a pretty good football team," he said. "When we do anything the opposite, any team can beat us. We have to play much cleaner and much better to be a successful team moving forward."

Northwestern opens up Big Ten play next week at Minnesota.

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Deerfield Wins The Battle of The Warriors Behind Marc Pagano's Big Day

Pagano scored four first half touchdowns and that was more than enough for Deerfield.

By Steven Jung | Email the author | September 25, 2010

So many times in sports, a team is described as a one-man show. That was not exactly the case at Deerfield High School Friday evening in front of a homecoming crowd. However, after one half of the game fans of Maine West (1-4, 0-1) had to be asking themselves one question. What would have happened if we shut down Deerfield's (3-2, 1-0) Marc Pagano?

The 5-foot-7 inch junior wide receiver stole the show in the Central Suburban League North conference opener between the Deerfield and Maine West Warriors. In a game Maine West desperately needed to win, they had no answer for Pagano and the trickery of Deerfield head coach Steve Winiecki. Deerfield dominated the first half, going into halftime leading 35-0. The final score was 35-7.

Pagano touched the ball just four times in the game, all coming in the first half, but he sure made the most of it. The four times he touched the ball, he scored on an 8-yard lateral pass, a 63-yard half-back pass, a 21-yard conventional touchdown pass and a 29-yard half back pass. The passer of each half back pass was senior Scott Ingram.

"We played a great game that gave me easy catches," Pagano said. "[Coach Winiecki] told us to play our kind of ball. We'll execute everything if we play hard every snap."

They certainly did execute. All five first half drives ended up in touchdowns for Deerfield.

A bit of optimism Maine West can take to next week, when they host Glenbrook North, is they won the second half outscoring Deerfield 7-0. A senior wide receiver scored on a 33-yard touchdown run midway through the fourth and Maine West avoided being shut out for the second consecutive game. However, Maine West has now been outscored 84-7 the last two games.

"We worked all week and we just didn't execute," said Maine West coach Chris Hare. They need to begin executing quickly to salvage a struggling campaign.

After the game, Winiecki talked about the goals coming into the game. "We played Deerfield football this week," he said. "We got away from it the past couple of weeks."

Pagano then touched on the team's goals for the remainder of the season. "We want to win the rest of [our] conference [games] and make it to the playoffs and see how it goes from there."

Deerfield next travels to Maine East (1-4, 0-1) in what appears to be a winnable game. The Blue Demons have been outscored 85-0 in their last two losses.

Maine West began a string of 3-of-4 road games with this loss to Deerfield. They play their only home game of that stretch coming up against Glenbrook North (4-1, 1-0).

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Maine South Dominates Maine West 49-0

The Warriors could not stop the Hawks offense. Maine South improved to 2-0 while Maine West fell to 1-3.

By Steven Jung | Email the author | September 17, 2010

After a pair of losses to highly ranked teams, the Maine South Hawks have seemingly found their back-to-back state championship form heading into conference season.

Coming off its first win of the year in blowout fashion, the Maine West Warriors were the next prey for the Hawks. Maine South improved to 2-2 on the season after dismantling Maine West (1-3) 49-0 in Des Plaines on Thursday night.

The theme of the night for Maine South was offensive efficiency. Led by sophomore quarterback Matt Alviti, Maine South scored on its first four possessions and seven of its first eight. The Hawks scored four touchdowns in the first half and Alviti accounted for three of them.

Following a 19-yard touchdown run from junior running back Paul Preston, Alviti got on the board when he found senior wide receiver Scott Derrick wide open down the left sideline for a 30-yard strike. Derrick caught two touchdowns.

On the next drive, Alviti tossed a 38-yard touchdown to senior Imran Kahn streaking down the right sideline. For his third and final touchdown, Alviti improvised pump faking the defense and scampered 11 yards for a touchdown making the score 28-0 at halftime.

Alviti only played a half, yet still had nine of 11 completions, 124 yards passing, two touchdown passes, one touchdown run and one interception.

Derrick mentioned after the game the offense needed to get off to a quick start. "In the first quarter, our offense definitely wanted to put some points on the board," he said. "I think our coach [David Inserra] had some good calls from the sideline."

Maine South went on to score three more touchdowns in the second half, with backup quarterback Anthony Davila accounting for two of them. Davila threw a touchdown pass to Derrick and ran in a seven-yard touchdown run.

The scoring was capped on a 36-yard run down the left sideline by junior Joe Schmidt.

Following a pair of losses to open the year, there are many questions whether those will linger for the Hawks. However, Derrick said those losses have already been put aside.

"We put the first two losses sort of out of our heads," he said. "Starting the conference season is going to be huge for us. We want to go undefeated from here on out."

It was clear from the start that Maine West would have a difficult time keeping the game close. The lack of a passing game for the Warriors was very evident, as they did not even attempt a pass until the third quarter.

Warriors senior quarterback Ziggy Krycka led his team with 62 yards rushing on 12 carries.

Maine West starts Central Suburban League North play on Sept. 24 when it travels to Deerfield. That same day, Maine South hosts Niles West in a Central Suburban League South game.

Northwestern Dominates Illinois State To Go 2-0

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In its home opener, Northwestern defeats Illinois State 37-3 behind a stellar performance from quarterback Dan Persa.

By Steven Jung | Email the author | September 12, 2010

In Northwestern's home opener, Wildcats head coach Pat Fitzgerald told his players one key point prior to their game against Illinois State of the Football Championship Subdivision, "Start fast." The Wildcats did so jumping out to a 14-3 lead after one quarter and put the game away by halftime heading into the locker room up 30-3.

"You want to come out and start fast," the coach said. "I thought we achieved that today." The Wildcats won by a final score of 37-3.

In Northwestern's first game, first year starting quarterback Dan Persa completed 19-of-21 passes against Vanderbilt in a victory. The senior managed to complete 19-of-23 passes for 240 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Through two games, Persa has completed 86 percent of his passes and tossed five touchdowns with no interceptions.

"The receivers made great plays for me all day," said Persa. "We were rolling pretty well on offense."

"He's playing really well right now," said Fitzgerald on his quarterback. "He has such a solid foundation and a grasp of what we're trying to accomplish offensively."

He could have thrown for another touchdown but Sidney Stewart dropped one in the first half. Stewart laughed about it after the game,

"You win some, you lose some," the senior receiver said. "It was such an easy catch that I dropped it."

The defense played well in the victory as well. The Wildcats intercepted three passes, recovered a lateral pass for a fumble recovery and had three sacks.

Senior linebacker Quentin Davie had two interceptions for the Wildcats. "I missed one last week so I kind of took some heat for that," he said. "I was just in the right place and we had great coverage downfield too."

Running back Arby Fields responded well after a tough game at Vanderbilt. The sophomore rushed for -7 yards on 10 carries in the season opener, but went for 98 yards and one touchdown against the Redbirds.

However, Fields said after the game his stats are a non-factor. "As long as we win the game, it doesn't matter what I do personally," he said. "We're going to do whatever it takes to win."

The only negative part of Northwestern's victory was place kicker Stefan Demos. Demos, a preseason all-conference selection, missed a 45-yard field goal and a point after touchdown.

Northwestern will travel to Texas to take on Rice on Sept. 18.