WW South falls to 0-2 on season

If Wheaton Warrenville South needed a pick-me-up, Maine South coach Dave Inserra’s parting words provided it.

“He told me, ‘We were 0-2 last year and we went on to good things,’” Tigers coach Ron Muhitch related to his players.

WW South is the one in that unfamiliar spot now, but it didn’t get there without a fight. The defending Class 8A champion Hawks beat the Tigers 13-9 on Friday in Park Ridge to drop WW South to 0-2 for the first time since 1997. WW South rebounded to go 6-4 and make the playoffs that year.

“It will come together,” said Tigers senior linebacker Dan Roadman, who blocked 2 punts and had 1 of WW South’s 5 sacks. “We played our hardest and things didn’t go our way. Maine South is a great team. They’re not No. 1 in the state for nothing.”

Roadman was part of a stout defense that kept the Tigers in it until the end. WW South held Maine South to just 1 first down and 0 points in the second half. Maine South’s high-powered offense was held to its lowest point total since a 44-7 loss to WW South in Week 2 last season.

“Our defense played their butts off,” Muhitch said. “If that’s the top passing game in the land, I’d say our defense showed up tonight.”

The Tigers defense forced a Maine South three-and-out to start the game, immediately setting up its offense with a short field. WW South needed just three plays to cash in, Patrick Garner scoring from a yard out for a 7-0 lead a little over two minutes in.

WW South’s Jack Lipinsky recovered a Paul Preston fumble later in the first quarter at the Maine South 34, but this time the Tigers went three-and-out. A dropped pass in the end zone was costly.

“We’re self-destructing in key moments,” Muhitch said. “We drop a ball there in the first quarter when I thought we really had them on the ropes.”

Maine South went ahead 13-7 with two long touchdown drives on its next two possessions. A 10-play, 85-yard drive resulted in a 2-yard touchdown run by quarterback Matt Alviti. Alviti’s 30-yard keeper set up Preston’s 1-yard touchdown run to push the Hawks ahead with 7:35 left in the half.

“I think we were shocked at the beginning of the game,” Inserra said. “It was a (1983) White Sox-type of winning ugly, but we’ll take it.”

WW South’s offense, which struggled in a 21-7 loss to Glenbard West in Week 1, did so again Friday.

The Tigers managed just one first down the rest of the first half after its early touchdown, and starting quarterback Thaddeus Armstrong gave way to sophomore Ryan Graham on WW South’s third possession of the third quarter.

Roadman’s first blocked punt resulted in a safety that pulled the Tigers within 13-9 with 5:33 left in the third quarter, and on Maine South’s next possession he blocked another one to set up WW South at the Hawks 16. The drive stalled inside the Maine South 10, and WW South never got closer to scoring.

Armstrong completed 5 of 15 passes for 40 yards before being relieved, and Graham was 8 for 18 with 46 yards and an interception. Three dropped passes hurt the Tigers, who ran for just 44 yards.

Preston ran for 100 yards on 18 carries for Maine South, and Alviti was 12 for 25 for 109 yards.