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Schaumburg locks down Glenbrook South

Following Friday night’s 42-7 playoff-opening win over Glenbrook South, Schaumburg looks locked.

And loaded.

The Saxons dedicated themselves to improvement and focus after last week’s regular-season loss at Palatine, and it showed at home against the visiting Titans, who finished 5-5.

Schaumburg scored on four consecutive possessions in the first half in zipping to a 29-0 halftime lead, limiting Glenbrook South to 30 yards total offense while rolling up 236 in the first two quarters.

“We were coming off a tough loss, and we said, ‘We’ve got to come back,’ ” said quarterback Stacey Smith. “We worked our butts off all week in practice.”

And it showed.

Smith connected with Cole Reyes for 3 TDs, including an 80-yard bomb that opened up the game, making it 14-0 after one quarter.

All three of Smith’s pass completions went to Reyes, all for TDs, for 121 yards total.

Smith ran the multi-option offense pretty efficiently as well, rushing for 77 yards and the game’s first TD and returning punts to help provide field possession. Controlling the line of scrimmage propelled all that.

“The offensive line killed it tonight,” he said of Alan Graciano, Matt Zolper, Matt Stopka, Justin Sanchez and Alex Piotrowski.

They also helped Sadarris Patterson gain 103 yards and score a TD and erase the memory of that lopsided loss to Palatine last week.

Pending today’s Niles West-Palatine playoff game, the Saxons (8-2) could just draw the Pirates (8-1) again next week.

“It doesn’t matter who we play,” said Saxons coach Mark Stilling. “We have to be about us.”

And especially the defense, which can get overlooked when Smith, Reyes, Patterson and Co. are putting up such impressive numbers.

Linebacker Conner Lapinsky, defensive ends Rashad McFadden and Wil Akoqu, defensive tackles Lee Duhs and Adam Worazek and defensive backs Blake Wittkamp and Juwaan Richard lead an effort that limited a tough, physical Glenbrook South team to 128 total yards, just 19 passing, and harassed quarterback Max Cohen into a 4-of-19 evening, including a deflected pick from Ryan Woloszyk.

“The defense gave us some great field possession,” said Smith, emphatically declaring this was the real Schaumburg team on display Friday night and not the one that got distracted and sidetracked by Palatine last week.

“This was the longest seven-day week ever,” Stilling said of being eager to come back from the loss. “We talked about being intense but composed. We talked about playing hard and playing the right way.”

We know it’s the playoffs,” said Smith, “and we’re going to work even harder.”

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