Hilmer, Palatine stay the course at Conant

Michael Hilmer made good not once, but twice, on his shot at redemption Friday night.

After missing badly on an extra point attempt in the first quarter due to a troublesome snap and hold, the Palatine football team's junior place-kicker nailed field goals of 26 and 32 yards to help the Pirates prevail 19-14 over host Conant.

It was a good thing, too. Like the rest of his teammates, Hilmer sweated out the seesaw battle in the final 5:04 of the Mid-Suburban West contest, which saw the Cougars score a touchdown that set the final score, then hold on fourth-and-1 on the ensuing Palatine drive at the Pirates' 43 yard line with 1:47 left.

Conant quarterback Kyle Bradley went for broke on the first play from scrimmage, and was promptly picked off by senior defensive back Joshua Mackie in the end zone, giving Palatine the ball and the 5-point lead with 1:38 remaining.

Two Conant timeouts and a Palatine holding penalty added tension that was finally broken by senior quarterback Nicholas Orlando, who gained just enough yardage on a third-and-5 play for a first down that put the Pirates in victory formation.

Two Orlando kneel-downs later, and Palatine was headed home with a 3-2 overall record and a 1-0 mark in the Mid-Suburban West.

But take away Hilmer's two field goals, and the outcome may have been much different.

"He was great," Palatine coach Rick Splitt said. "He's a kid who wants to kick and do well, and he practices hard every day. We put him in pressure situations in practice. He's got the confidence to do it, and he did a great job tonight. We're very, very proud of him."

It didn't start out exactly well for Hilmer. After senior running back Christopher Cornelius scored on a 39-yard run with 4:37 left in the first quarter, Hilmer shanked the extra point wide right, leaving the Pirates down 7-6.

That score held until Palatine recovered a Conant fumble with 55.5 seconds left in the first half. The Pirates subsequently marched from its 30-yard line to the Conant 9 in six plays, and on a third-and-six, Splitt elected to send Hilmer out for a 26-yard field goal attempt.

He banged through a line drive gave his team a 9-7 halftime lead.

Hilmer made it on the field again at the 8:27 mark of the third quarter, connecting on an extra point after Cornelius's second touchdown of the night, a 61-yard scamper down the Palatine sideline, slipping away from two Conant defenders into the right corner of the end zone.

That made the score 16-7 Palatine, which is what the scoreboard showed with 11:46 remaining in the game, when Splitt sent Hilmer out again, this time from 32 yards out, the final play of a 16-yard drive that ate up 4:29.

No problem for Hilmer. He split the uprights to give the Pirates a 12-point advantage.

What was his secret?

"After the first extra point, you just forget about it, move on, and come down here, and just execute," Hilmer said. "The line blocked great, great snaps from Ryan Lambke, great holds from Mitch Dolen. Everything went well."

So what happened on the botched extra point?

"It was a low snap, but I still have to make the kick," he shrugged. "It just didn't go well all around. We forget about it and move on."

Conant looked as if it might snatch victory away as the fourth quarter waned. Bradley, who completed 13 of 26 passes for 188 yards and added 64 rushing yards, engineered an eight-play, 68-yard drive in 2 minutes, 44 seconds that culminated in a 1-yard touchdown run by fellow junior running back Jake Jakubosky with 3:19 left. Senior kicker J.T. Levitt's extra point cut Conant's deficit to 19-14.

Palatine ran three plays before facing a fourth-and-1 on its own 43. Cornelius, who finished with 230 yards on 27 carries, was stuffed by Conant's defensive front, turning the ball over on downs.

That gave Bradley a chance for redemption after an earlier interception, but it wasn't to be. He dropped back and fired a perfect spiral into the end zone - right into the hands of a leaping Mackie.

"We knew they were going to pass, so we all dropped back into coverage and I was beat deep," Mackie said. "I saw the ball in the air, started running backwards and turned around at the right time, I guess. That was the game - I knew I had to make the play. I knew I couldn't miss."

"I'll be honest with you, first of all, he made me look good for making the call on fourth-and-one I wanted to go for, he turned around and made a good play," Splitt said of Mackie. "He's a senior, he's been up on varsity for three years. His leadership really stepped up today and made a home run play."

Jakubosky finished with 133 yards rushing on 22 carries for Conant in its homecoming game, and added 65 yards receiving on five catches. Also contributing was junior receiver Palmer Graham, who had 61 yards on four watches, while junior Carl Hahn had 30 yards receiving on two catches for Conant, which fell to 2-3 overall and 0-1 in the West.