Late score lifts Vernon Hills past Grant
Vernon Hills is holding final dates with familiar North Suburban Prairie opponents.
Next season, most of the Prairie Division is splitting from the NSC to form the North Lake County Conference. Vernon Hills will move in a different direction and join the Central Suburban League.
So Friday's 21-18 victory over Grant in the NSC Prairie opener had special meaning for Vernon Hills coach Bill Bellecomo. The Cougars improved to 3-0 on the season.
"We knew Grant was going to come out (playing well)," he said. "That's a tough community, tough kids. We have epic games with them. I told the kids this is our last game we get to play against them. For years we've been having epic battle with them and we knew it was going to be a dogfight. That's the kind of mentality they have and we knew that."
Grant (0-3) did play well in this game and held the lead late in the fourth quarter. But the Cougars' high-powered passing offense finally made the difference when quarterback Connor McNamara hit Jonathan McGuire on a slant pattern for a 23-yard touchdown, which turned out to be the game-winner with 3:15 remaining.
Plenty of practice went into the game-winning play. McNamara threw to a spot and McGuire caught the ball at full speed, enabling him to turn a medium pass into a big gain.
"That one was picture perfect," said McNamara, who completed 15 of 33 passes for 219 yards. "When I threw it I was like, 'That safety better not pick that.' And then when he caught it, that was a relief. To have him run it in, that was a great catch and a great way to finish off the game. The defense kept giving us the ball and we needed to take the lead back, so it was good to punch one in."
The visiting Bulldogs actually had some passing success of their own in this game. They took an 18-14 lead early in the fourth quarter on a 6-yard TD pass from Hunter Sadoski to Kemar Miller. Sadoski was 11-for-20 for 109 yards, while Miller had 7 catches for 85 yards.
Even when trailing late in the fourth quarter, Grant put together a decent drive. Sadoski found Miller for 12 yards on fourth-and-seven to give the Bulldogs a first down at the Vernon Hills 41-yard line, but that's as far as they went.
Grant got a big effort from sophomore running back Kenyon Jones, who finished with 120 yards on 34 carries. This was Jones' first varsity action, stepping in for junior Isaac Jaime.
The Bulldogs marched 80 yards for a touchdown on their first drive of the night, scoring on a 1-yard sneak by Sadoski. Grant missed all 3 of its extra points.
The Cougars went ahead 7-6 on a 20 yard pass from McNamara to Andres Salazar before Drew Walker's interception return to the 2-yard line set up a 2-yard TD run by Jones to put Grant ahead 12-7 at halftime.
In the third quarter, Vernon Hills took a 14-12 lead on McNamara's 2-yard pass to junior Kyle Hull. Five players had at least 2 catches for the Cougars.
"We definitely spread the ball well," McNamara said. "When the ball's going to whichever wideout, they just seem to just make the play. They do a great job out there. I don't really have any favorites. Just throw to who's open."