Winning's quite a rush for Conant
Conant threw a rushing party, and the hosts were juniors quarterback Kyle Bradley and running back Jake Jakubosky on Friday night in an MSL West matchup at Schaumburg.
The Cougars (3-4) were more than delighted in taking home the Silver Sneaker trophy as they routed Schaumburg 35-7, thus ending a three-game skid.
Bradley took the lead in the first half, while Jakubosky excelled the second. Between the two sprinters, the Cougars amassed a total of 228 yards and 5 touchdowns.
Though Jakubosky and Bradley pointed out that their team had struggled when in the red zone recently, it wasn't a problem on this night as Conant went 5-for-5 from inside the 20.
Bradley didn't use his arm much, but his athleticism was used heavily as he bobbed and weaved between Saxons defenders for 2 touchdowns (and 83 yards rushing) in the first half. Jakubosky primarily made his presence felt in the second half by tallying 3 touchdowns on his way to 145 yards from scrimmage.
"The offensive line did a phenomenal job," Bradley said. "It felt like whenever I was running there were huge holes. This sets us up for next week with a tough game against Fremd. We needed to get back to winning. We didn't make small mistakes. I'm glad we got the win."
"It feels awesome," Jakubosky said. "We got this win for the seniors. We have to keep this same mentality for next week. We watched film every day this week and it helped us get a good win."
The Cougars defense held up its end of the bargain as well. Conant's defense didn't allow a Saxon score until there was only 6:10 left in the game.
The Conant front four really applied pressure on Schaumburg's offensive sequences when they were trying to air out the ball. Besides a sack from Conant junior lineman Tyler Hickerson and a fumble recovery from junior linebacker Adam Shymanik, the Conant able to defelect 7 passes. Three of them forced Schaumburg turnovers on downs.
"The defense has been solid for us all year," said Conant coach Bill Modelski. "(The defense) really played well (Friday night) and has kept us in a lot of games this year that sometimes we shouldn't have really been in.
"We'll take this win and run with it. We didn't shoot ourselves in the foot, and it's nice to get back in the winning side of things."
Schaumburg struggled in all phases. The Saxons fumbled four times (losing one), allowed over 300 yards of total offense and also had 99 yards of penalties.
A bright spot in the Schaumburg offense was senior Justice Macneal-Young, who rushed for 137 yards.
Schaumburg's score came on a high-arcing 18-yard pass from quarterback Alex Kiszkowski into the hands of senior Jarman McMillon in the back corner of the end zone.
Schaumburg (1-6) will next try to snap a four-game losing streak as it travels to Hoffman Estates, while Fremd will host Conant.
"I'm really happy for Kyle (Bradley)," Modelski said. "It's been a tough year for him. (Bradley) had an injury slowing him down, but tonight we saw a lot of what he's got. That will be good for us moving forward."