Trossen, Hersey get their kicks in OT
The kicking aspect of football at the high school level can be a bit spotty. Extra points are no guarantee, and field goals can be problematic.
Hersey need not worry about its kicking game after Friday night.
Two overtime field goals from Will Trossen helped the Huskies to a 20-17 home victory over visiting Prospect in double overtime on the first weekend of Mid-Suburban East play.
Both of Trossen’s field goals came from 24 yards away, and in regulation he converted the tying extra point in the fourth quarter after wide receiver Tyndale Dahnweih scored from 5 yards out on an end-around.
“They are all the same to me,” Trossen said of his three important kicks. “Same swing. Same everything. Stay positive in my head. I can’t think negative. There were perfect snaps the whole time, so that takes pressure off. The line was great, and it was perfect placement.”
Prospect and Hersey traded field goals in the first overtime session, and the game went to a second with the score knotted at 17. Prospect had the ball to start the second overtime, and the Hersey (3-2, 1-0) defense stood tall on a fourth-and-goal from the 3-yard line to set up Trossen’s game-winning kick.
“We worked all summer for this,” Hersey defensive back Jack Carroll, who recovered a fumble earlier in the game, said of his team’s goal line stop. “We basically told ourselves, ‘Who wants it more?’ We did, because we killed it (in that situation).”
Hersey’s defense, led by Carroll, and linebackers Chase Bandolik and Dan Nicholson, was able to overcome three turnovers and several costly penalties (including two that wiped out touchdowns) by the Huskie offense.
“Really proud of them,” Hersey coach Dragan Teonic said of his defense. “We played the last six minutes of the third quarter, all of the fourth quarter and two overtimes really well. To force them to a field goal to tie us in the first overtime was huge, and then of course the stop (in the second overtime) was a tremendous, gritty play by us.”
This was a major swing game for Hersey, with the Huskies entering the contest with a 2-2 record.
“It’s huge,” Carroll said of coming out of the double-overtime battle with a win. “We’re one and zero in the East, so we’ve got four games left. We’ve got to beat them all.”
Offensively for Hersey, quarterback Jack Warner completed 17-of-28 passes for 203 yards. His favorite target was receiver Eddie Miklasz, who caught 8 passes for 93 yards.
Hersey running back Kyle Polinski (16 carries, 78 yards; 5 catches 62 yards), went down with an injury in the first overtime. Teonic said Polinski would miss a few weeks, and the Huskies hope to have him back before the end of the season.
For Prospect (0-5, 0-1), running back Eric Garmoe run for 141 yards on 29 carries and quarterback Matt Drew ran for 52 yards on 15 carries with two touchdowns.
“You don’t worry about the result,” Prospect coach Mike Sebestyen said when asked how not to allow his team to dwell on a close loss. “The kids played. They battled. They did everything that we asked of them. It’s truly about the journey, which we’ve always said in this program. It’s another learning experience. The next four weeks, that’s what we do. We learn from it.”