Indian Trail regroups, springs surprise on Stevenson
When Stevenson started Friday night’s game at Indian Trail in Kenosha, Wis., by forcing a punt after three plays and then scoring a touchdown on its second play from scrimmage, there had to be plenty of people in the stands thinking “blowout.”
After all, the Hawks are playing varsity football for only the second season, while highly touted Stevenson has its eyes on a 25th consecutive postseason playoff appearance. But games are rarely decided on the first two series, and this one at breezy Charles Jaskwhich Stadium was no exception.
Indian Trail ignored its poor start, buckling down to grind out yardage on offense and force turnovers on defense with a solid front four rush led by defensive end Mike Roach. The Patriots, on the other hand, scored only one touchdown the rest of the way and committed eight consecutive giveaways in the second half to fall 15-14 in the nonconference contest.
“We weren’t going to let the first two minutes of the game get us down,” said Roach, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound senior whose name was repeatedly called by the P.A. announcer when Stevenson ball carriers went down. “Our defense has been together for four years and we have a lot of camaraderie.
“Our goal tonight was route destruction, and our D-line was able to give the secondary chances with our rush. It was hustle, hustle, hustle tonight for us, and it paid off.”
The Patriots (0-1) led 14-6 at the half on a 3-yard touchdown run by junior Tim Vestuto following a 37-yard pass play from quarterback Willie Bourbon to wide receiver Matt Morrissey, and a 1-yard plunge by senior Ryan Mass with 7:28 to play in the third quarter.
But the second half was a nightmare for the visitors from Illinois, starting with a Bourbon interception and continuing with a safety when Bourbon was flagged for intentional grounding from his end zone. On Stevenson’s next possession, starting center Henry Sise had to be carted off the field with a knee injury.
From then on, bad snaps from center contributed to three of the next seven turnovers. Indian Trail quarterback Zach Gianakos, who had scored a first-quarter touchdown on a 1-yard run to cut his team’s deficit to 7-6, raced 17 yards for his second TD late in the third quarter for a 15-14 advantage that held up.
“It was a debacle out there,” said Stevenson coach Bill McNamara. “Too many mistakes and too many turnovers. We were out of rhythm. We were playing like we had eight or nine guys out there instead of 11.
“After Henry went down with what I think could be a broken leg, we had three guys who had been practicing snapping but we couldn’t snap the ball. Our defense played really well and got turnovers to give the offense a chance, but you can’t get any plays going if you can’t snap the ball to the quarterback.”
The Hawks (2-0), who began their season the previous week with a 35-14 victory over defending Eastern Wisconsin Conference champion Plymouth, gave their coach a scare with their quick deficit.
“I’ll admit that I said, ‘Oh no, here we go,’ after we fell behind 7-0 so quickly, but we also knew there was a lot of time left,” said Indian Trail coach Mike McKay. “We regrouped and slowed it down because we knew we wanted do keep their offense off the field as much as possible.”
As it turned out, the Hawks played their best when Stevenson had the ball, intercepting three passes — including two by safety Izaak Simar — recovering four fumbles and pressuring the Patriots into a safety.