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Wauconda reverses fortunes against Round Lake

Last-second losers each of its last two games, Wauconda this time played the role of heartbreaker at the end of a half.

The only difference was that there were still another 24 minutes of football to play on Round Lake's homecoming Saturday.

"It shouldn't have happened," Round Lake coach Jordan Eder said after his Panthers yielded Kevin Malisheski's desperation, 37-yard touchdown pass to Josh Anderson on the final play of the first half. "That's a killer."

An upset loss to Round Lake would have killed Wauconda's season. Instead, the Bulldogs rallied and got their must-win, 41-12 in a North Suburban Prairie Division contest that was a 1-point game until the visitors' last-second heroics at the end of the opening half.

"We started off really slow," Malisheski said after throwing for 184 yards and 4 touchdowns, despite completing just 8 of 20 passes. Three of his TD strikes were to Anderson. "We kind of underestimated them, and we can't do that. Next week we need to come out strong against Antioch. It'll be a good game. They're a tough team."

Wauconda (4-4, 2-3) hosts Antioch (6-2, 4-1) on Friday night and must win to have a shot at earning an at-large state playoff berth. The Bulldogs lost to Vernon Hills on a last-second field goal last week and fell to Grant on a last-second TD pass the previous week. For most of the first half against Round Lake (2-6, 1-4), it looked like Wauconda was still searching for its confidence.

Round Lake junior Kyle Johnson intercepted Malisheski at midfield midway through the first quarter, and the Panthers cashed in six plays later. Quarterback Cole Steger, who was making his first start since Week 4 against Zion-Benton, scored from the 1 to cap a 55-yard drive with 3:50 left.

The Panthers held their 6-0 lead until Wauconda took advantage of a blown coverage to pull even. Malisheski hit a wide-open Jake Grobelny from 16 yards out with 5:29 left before halftime, and Grobelny's PAT kick gave the Bulldogs the lead.

Up 7-6 in the final minute, Wauconda forced a Round Lake punt and the Bulldogs took over at their own 43 with 18 seconds left. Malisheski's deep pass was broken up by Omar Soto on first down. Malisheski then completed a 20-yard pass to tight end Parker Fink, who got out of bounds at the Round Lake 37 with 2 seconds left.

"We're trying to get better at doing some things, and that's one of them - two-minute drives," Wauconda coach Dave Mills said. "Practicing on our turf field has allowed us to put a game clock up all the time. Today we got a little bit of that reward."

On the next play, Malisheski threw to the right corner of the end zone, where the 6-foot-2 Anderson caught the ball between two defenders.

"We saw they were in prevent so we wanted to go quick screen on (the pass to Fink) to set up the Hail Mary," Malisheski said. "Then we spread out four receivers with Josh on the single side. I just looked off the safety and threw it to him single side, and Josh made a great play on it."

Anderson's clutch catch was a homecoming spoiler for the Panthers.

"The first half was really good," Eder said. "The defense played great. We just had the two broken-down plays that gave up touchdowns."

Wauconda came out after halftime and rode the momentum. The Bulldogs got a three-and-out on the opening possession, and then the offense needed only two plays to extend the lead to 21-6. Malisheski hit Anderson, who ran a pair of slants and then what he called an "arrow" to the outside. The senior wide receiver raced down the sideline for a 62-yard score.

"I got great blocking from my receivers down the sideline," Anderson said.

Malisheski and Anderson weren't done. When Wauconda got the ball back, Malisheski hit Anderson over the middle from 24 yards out, capping a three-play drive after a short punt. Wauconda made it four scores in as many possessions when Collin Tyrrell took a pitch from Malisheski and sped 20 yards into the end zone with 4:16 left in the third to make it 34-6.

"Just little things here and there kept adding up," Eder said. "It makes it tough."

"We started to execute a lot better," Mills said. "We probably missed 5-6 plays (in the first half) that could have been first downs. We just weren't doing it. We had a couple of talks at halftime and talked about getting the throws a little quicker and the runs a little quicker, and playing to our tempo. Our kids stepped up and did that, and we had a good third quarter."

Round Lake got back on the board again when Steger threw a 5-yard TD pass to Danny Hernandez (6 catches, 56 yards) in the fourth. Wauconda answered with a 17-yard touchdown run by Max Buechner.

"You can't really look past teams because when you do, they're going to bite you in the butt," said Anderson, who finished with 4 receptions for 136 yards. "We kind of looked past (Round Lake)."

Round Lake finishes up with Grant at home Friday night.

"I told Jordan afterward, 'Keep your head up,' " Mills said of his coaching counterpart. "In the (two) years he's had the program, his kids are getting better and better."

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