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Mayes makes it happen for Hoffman Estates

The situation was pretty cut and dried for the Hoffman Estates football team on Friday night.

Win its final two regular-season games, and it would likely gain a berth in the Illinois High School Association state playoffs.

Thanks to senior quarterback Jeff Mayes, it's one down, one to go for the Hawks.

Mayes led Hoffman Estates to a 28-14 victory over Schaumburg on Friday, throwing 3 touchdown passes and scampering 30 yards for another to improve his team's record to 4-4 and 1-3 in the Mid-Suburban West.

It also erased a tough four-game losing streak where the Hawks were outscored by an average of 40-13.

How big of a roll did Mayes get on Friday?

In addition to being the catalyst on all four Hawks' scoring plays, he went 8-for-13 passing for 214 yards and led his team in rushing with 114 yards on 18 carries.

In other words, he accounted one way or another for 328 of his team's 429 total yards.

Post-game, however, it was all about what was at stake for his team's season, and what still is - next week's regular-season finale at Conant.

"We said, 'playoffs are now for us,' " Mayes said. "We're 3-4, we need two to get in, and all week at practice, we said, 'This is a playoff game.' Playoffs start now for us, and we prepared like a playoff game and it paid off.

"The energy around the school has been like nothing it's ever been. Everyone is behind us, and every guy knows what our goal is, and that's to be a playoff team. I don't have to say much, the seniors don't have to say much, but when it's time to get to work, we get down to work."

Mayes single-handedly reversed a bit of a sluggish start by the Hawks with 4:01 left in the first quarter.

He calmly dropped back into the pocket inside his team's 20-yard line and fired a pass that senior receiver Brandon Hall caught up the middle and outraced a defender into the end zone.

A Jessica Miller extra point tied the game at 7-7.

Schaumburg was up 14-7 after a Shandall Thomas interception return for a touchdown which was Mayes' only mistake of the evening.

Mayes struck again with 4:41 left in the first half.

He faked a handoff to junior running back Chady Bitre and dashed up the middle and away from several Saxon defenders into the end zone. Miller's extra point tied the game once again at 14-14.

That score remained until the 5:08 mark of the third quarter, when Mayes engineered a nine-play, 87-yard drive that culminated in a 23-yard touchdown pass to senior receiver Michael Baureis in the right corner of the end zone.

Mayes found Baureis again with 7:03 left in the game, hitting him for a 32-yard touchdown on the same slant play that worked on Hall's 81-yard touchdown in the first quarter.

Bitre, who finished with 91 yards on 23 carries, rushed for the two-point conversion that set the final score.

There was plenty for Hawks' coach Mike Donatucci to like Friday from his charges.

"(Mayes) is just a heady kid, makes right decisions, and I was glad to see Mike Baureis have two big catches," Donatucci said. "Defensively we were solid, they were in the red zone, what, four times, and we held them to one touchdown.

"And the other thing is, when we got behind in the first half, they didn't fall apart, and that means they're growing up, and at the right time."

On the other side of the field, Schaumburg once again got a big night of rushing from senior back Justice Macneal-Young (115 yards, 24 carries).

Senior quarterback Alex Kiszkowski opened the scoring for the Saxons with an 11-yard touchdown run with 8:21 left in the first quarter.

But mistakes were problematic all night for Schaumburg, which fumbled the ball three times.

One of them occurred on a fourth-and-goal at the Hoffman Estates 1-yard line that killed a 12-play drive that ate up nearly 6 minutes.

"I really felt our kids came out with great energy, and that was a focus of ours, so I was proud of that," Schaumburg coach Mark Stilling said. "I don't question our effort; unfortunately, execution in terms of finishing drives and big plays just killed us. Energy, effort I thought was very good, but execution was nowhere near it needed to be."

The Saxons fell to 1-7 overall and 0-4 in the MSL West, heading into next week's finale at Palatine.

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