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Addison Trail hangs on to beat Willowbrook

Through three excruciating timeouts, Addison Trail's entire football team held its breath.

Then came the exhale.

It came in the form of a massive celebration as Willowbrook's last-second 30-yard field goal banged off the front of the right post to preserve the Blazers' 28-26 West Suburban Gold Conference victory Friday in Villa Park.

The spoils of victory stayed on the visitor's sideline in the form of the District 88 trophy that'll remain in Addison Trail's possession for another year. More important, though, was a key conference-opening victory for the defending Gold champions.

"I was pretty nervous," said Addison Trail linebacker Josh Simko. "But I had faith in my team. I knew we were going to stop them. We cut it a little close there, and I certainly didn't want that to happen."

Addison Trail (2-1, 1-0) seemed to take a commanding 28-19 lead late in the third quarter on Mike Hundley's 2-yard touchdown run. Willowbrook (1-2, 0-1) came right back on its next possession with Billy Degnan's 4-yard scoring pass to Ron Reitz to narrow the gap to 28-26.

The Blazers ran nearly seven minutes off the fourth-quarter clock, but the Warriors got the ball back with 4:36 left at their 12-yard line. Thirteen plays marched Willowbrook down to Addison Trail's 13, setting up the thrilling finale.

The Warriors let the clock run down until calling timeout with 2.8 seconds left. Then the Blazers called their final two timeouts to freeze the kicker. The kick looked good off the foot of Mike Dembowski, but the ball hit off the front of the post.

"I was very scared," said Blazers receiver Stevan Jones. "That kick, I thought he was going to make it for sure. And he didn't. Moving down the field, I thought we had them. The clock was running down but I was just worried the whole time."

Addison Trail trailed twice in the first half but took advantage of 3 Willowbrook turnovers to take a 14-13 halftime lead. Off a Matt Domek tip at the line, Simko returned an interception 40 yards for a touchdown and Ryan Zygowicz hit Jones with a 28-yard touchdown pass to give the Blazers the slight edge.

Degnan, who threw for 264 yards, found Reitz for 3 touchdown passes in the game while Jack Jessen, who rushed for 145 yards, started the scoring with a 7-yard run.

Addison Trail opened the second half with a touchdown drive to build a 21-13 lead on a 12-yard pass from Zygowicz to Darrion Conrad. Mike Hundley rushed for 86 yards.

"You're always going to sprinkle in some juniors and some sophomores but seniors have to make plays to win football games, to beat good football teams," said Warriors coach Nick Hildreth. "And the fact of the matter is that that didn't happen often enough to win the game."

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