Second-half surge favors Palatine
Palatine's Jordan Irwin and the rest of the linebacking corps for the Pirates played downhill Thursday. Meanwhile, teamate Chris Cornelius was off to the races.
Irwin, along with Dillon McHugh, Vince Serio and Michael Williams, kept Hoffman Estates' offense bottled up in the second half as Cornelius 2 of his 4 touchdowns while Palatine ran away from host Hoffman Estates 31-14 in a Mid-Suburban West matchup.
“We usually start out slow,” said Irwin, who led a group that held Hoffman Estates without a first down in the second half until late in the game when the contest wasn't in doubt.
“But halftime is a key point to turn things around. We switched around our defensive line a bit and had our ends take their right end, it gave our linebackers a chance to be more aggressive.”
Palatine coach Rick Splitt said that adjustments his team made at halftime were the key to victory.
“We made some adjustments at halftime to let our guys be more physical,” Splitt said. “Our linebackers were able to play downhill and attack better.”
While the Palatine defense controlled the second half, the game may have turned on a miscue by Hoffman Estates (3-3, 0-2).
With the score tied early in the third quarter at 14, Hoffman's Michael Baureis blocked a punt, and the Hawks recovered at the Palatine 9.
On the first subsequent play, Hoffman gained 3 yards — but the Hawks were then called for an unsportsmanlike penalty. The Hawks were called for another unsportsmanlike penalty on the next play and found themselves with a third and goal from the 39. They failed to score in the series and in the second half.
“I am embarrassed,” said Hoffman Estates coach Mike Donatucci, whose team was called for 88 yards of penalties in the third quarter and had 15 called against them for 160 yards for the game. “We just self-destructed. And I have ato take responsibility for that.”
With Hoffman imploding, Cornelius talk over, leading the Pirates to 17 unanswered points.
“It is all about the O-line,” said Cornelius, who finished with 255 yards on 27 carries. “We thought we could move the ball on the ground and we were able to do that.”
With Carsten Andersen, Mark Scherer, Matt Kerlin, Tommy Sobotka and Kevin Clark blocking for Cornelius, the Pirates were able to drive 49 yards following an interception by Irwin. Cornelius scored on 4-yard run to put the Pirates up 21-14 with 6:19 left in the third quarter.
Michael Hilmer booted 26-yard field goal just before the end of the third quarter and Cornelius put the game away with an 80-yard scamper late in the fourth quarter.
The teams exchanged touchdown drives in the first half to knot the game at 14 at the break.
Hoffman Estates broke through first thanks to a fumble recovery by Andrew Vesper on the Hawk 17. Three plays later Chady Bitre, who nearly broke it on the first play from scrimmage with a 43-yard run, broke free from 31 yards out to make it 6-0 with 3:07 left in the first quarter.
Palatine came right back with an impressive 14-play, 78-yard drive. With Nick Orlando completing 3 passes and Orlando and Cornelius mixing up the running duties, Cornelius finished the drive with 4-yard run to make it 7-6 early in the second quarter.
Hoffman Estates mounted a long scoring drive if its own, going 75 yards in 12 plays. Again it was Bitre, who finished with 250 yards on 35 carries, scoring on 10-yard run. Then Mayes passed to Dante Cleveland for the 2-point conversion and 14-7 lead with 4:48 left in the half.
It took Palatine just 98 seconds to tie the game. Starting at its own 49 thanks to a Hoffman penalty, Palatine covered the distance win just 4 plays with Cornelius scoring from the 2.
“We are 4-2 and we have three games against some very good teams,” Splitt said. But I like the way we are playing. We just got to keep moving forward.”