Smith, Schaumburg prove their point
Mother Nature may have proved a point Friday night, but Saturday it was Stacey Smith who had something to prove.
The Schaumburg senior signal-caller carved up the New Trier defense for a game-high 151 yards rushing in the Saxons 34-20 win over New Trier at Robert Naughton Field.
The game was postponed from Friday night due to inclement weather.
Smith dazzled with scoring runs of 24, 86 and 43 in the season-opening win. The senior speedster, who was playing in his first varsity game as quarterback, deferred the credit after the game.
“The offensive line killed it tonight, I love those dudes,” Smith said of the guys in the trenches. “They fight for me every day and if not for them I would not have had those three touchdowns.”
The guys upfront didn’t just block for Smith, they also opened up gaping holes in the Trevians defense for a trio of other Saxons backs. Ryan Tuma carried the ball 10 times for 86 yards, while Justice Macneal-Young added 79 yards and Luke Gruszka racked up 72 yards.
Macneal-Young and Gruszka accounted for the other two Saxons touchdowns on the ground, from 45 and 32 yards, respectively.
The starting offensive linemen for the Saxons were Matthew Stopka, Michael Bruno, Matt Zolper, Justin Sanchez and Aleksander Piotrowski.
Despite outgaining Schaumburg 201-175 in the first half and running 23 more offensive plays than the Saxons, the Trevians trailed 14-13 at intermission.
“I don’t know how we were up a point at halftime,” Saxons coach Mark Stilling said. “They (New Trier) did a nice job of controlling the tempo, but I thought we did a nice job of making adjustments in the second half.”
Schaumburg found the end zone three times in the third frame to take control of the game. The trio of scoring drives totaled just 11 plays.
“Big plays hurt us,” New Trier coach Dan Starkey said. “We had some momentum in the first half (10-8 lead) but we just really struggled with open field tackling today.
“Schaumburg has some really athletic players and that ultimately hurt us in the second half.”
On the other side of the ball, the Saxons’ motto was “bend but don’t break.” New Trier quarterback Frank Nicholas (20-27, 161 yards) was successful completing short screen passes, but the Saxons defense refused to give up the big plays. Twice in the first half the Trevians had to settle for field goals at the end of long drives.
“I just thought our kids showed a lot of resolve today,” Stilling said. “We did some things we had not prepared for and mentally I am impressed with how our kids responded.”
For the game the Saxons racked up 402 yards on the ground on 40 carries. The Schaumburg defense limited New Trier to 108 yards on the ground on 35 carries.
Schaumburg (1-0) plays at Wheeling on Friday night in a Mid-Suburban League divisional crossover.