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Salazar's clutch kick propels Vernon Hills

In practice, Vernon Hills junior Andres Salazar attempts 40-yard field goals with his teammates screaming in his face and running at him from all angles.

It's to get him ready for the real-life pressures of an actual game situation.

So, Friday's 22-yard field goal attempt at Wauconda was a relative piece of cake, right?

"That one actually scared me a little bit," said Salazar, who had never before kicked a game-winner.

But there he was with 0.4 seconds left in the game, lining up for his kick, which could save the day for Vernon Hills. To add to the edge, the Cougars had just scored a touchdown 3 minutes earlier and Salazar's extra point had been blocked.

But this time, Salazar got enough height on the ball and split the uprights down the middle to lift Vernon Hills to a crazy, 30-28 come-from-behind victory.

"It's really exciting," said the versatile Salazar, who also caught a game-high 9 passes for 211 yards (including a 5-yard touchdown) and made all kinds of big plays on defense. "Our coaches told us all week that this was the game we needed to be able to (stay alive) for the playoffs. So we knew we needed to win. Everyone is tired of losing."

Vernon Hills improves to 4-3 overall and 3-2 in the North Suburban Conference Prairie Division. The Cougars could earn an at-large berth by winning out.

For heart-broken Wauconda, which drops to 3-4 (1-3 Prairie) and would now have to qualify for the playoffs on points, this is the second game in a row that has yielded a loss in the final seconds. Last week against Grant, Wauconda lost (32-29) on a 60-yard touchdown pass with one second left in the game.

"I'm speechless right now, just exhausted," said Wauconda coach Dave Mills as he watched some of his players leave the field in tears. "This matters to them. When you're talking about the difference between two losses and two wins and you're talking a matter of seconds, it should hurt. Our kids are competitors and they've put a lot into it and we've come up short the last two weeks.

"We're just going to have to fight and correct and come back and play again."

Wauconda appeared to be in good shape when quarterback Kevin Malisheski (19-of-33, 212 passing yards and 86 rushing yards) scored his fourth touchdown of the night on a 1-yard run with 3:10 left in the game.

Even when Vernon Hills struck right back and scored off an 80-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Connor McNamara (23-of-52, season-high 433 yards) to Robby Nardini (4 catches, 123 yards, 2 touchdowns) with 2:54 remaining, the big picture still looked good for the Bulldogs as Connor Mitchell blocked Salazar's extra point.

Wauconda, with the ball back, clung to a 28-27 lead and then tried to run out the clock.

But the Bulldogs couldn't get a first down on their next series and they had to punt the ball away with 1:36 left.

Vernon Hills sputtered on the first two plays of the next series, but McNamara was eventually able to run for a first down. As he was going out of bounds, a defender hit him late and Wauconda was tagged with a 15-yard penalty. A few more passes later and Vernon Hills was well within field goal range for Salazar.

"There are no words for this," McNamara said. "We just kept fighting and coming at them and you couldn't have dreamed it better. This is amazing, just a great feeling.

"I knew that we could put it together and then we got the long pass (80 yards to Nardini) and that was just amazing. The whole team knew this was like a playoff game. We just wanted to win so much and I knew (Salazar) was going to kick it through."

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