More good news as Mundelein marches on

It has been a great start to the season for the Mundelein football team.

That trend continued Friday night when the host Mustangs jumped all over North Chicago by taking a commanding 42-6 lead into halftime of this North Suburban Conference crossover game.

From there, Mundelein never looked back as it rolled to an easy 55-6 victory over the Warhawks behind some impressive running and passing by senior quarterback Colten Fisher.

The Mustangs are 3-0 for the first time since 2004, when they started the season 4-0 en route to a state-playoff berth. Their 3 wins are their most since they went 3-6 in 2007.

From the outset of Mundelein's very happy homecoming game, North Chicago (1-2) had no answer for the Mustangs' offensive attack as Fisher (148 yards rushing on 15 carries) faked a handoff and went 11 yards up the middle for the touchdown and a 6-0 lead just 2:29 into the contest.

After a punt by the Warhawks, Mundelein would march 97 yards on 6 plays as a 42-yard keeper with a 15-yard penalty tacked onto the end of it putting the ball on the North Chicago 13-yard-line.

Senior Isac Banuelos broke two tackles near the line of scrimmage on the next play as Banuelos scored on a 13-yard TD run. A 2-point conversion pass from Fisher to Aaron Woolford made the score 14-0 with 6:39 left in the first quarter.

The running game was the key to the Mustangs' next scoring drive as Jake Gokan broke off runs of 21, and 30 yards to put the ball on the Warhawks' 20.

Six plays later, Woolford went in motion before taking a handoff and scoring on a 2-yard run before the first of 4 extra points by Banuelos boosted the lead to 21-0 late in the first quarter.

First-year Mundelein coach Larry Calhoun could not have been happier with his squad for both the 3-0 start and just for being so coachable.

"I'm super-proud of them, we've got a great group of kids, and they've taken to the schemes we're coaching," said Calhoun, who previously coached at Elk Grove. "It's really nice we can make a little mark in school history (starting 3-0). But to be honest, we're not looking to the past, we're looking forward with all respect to what other teams have done here before us."

Fisher got really familiar with another favorite target on Mundelein's next possession as he hit senior tight end Antoine Hicks on a 27-yard TD pass over the middle for the first of three TD passes from Fisher to Hicks on the night.

Mundelein looked like it was heading for another TD less than two minutes later. But Gokan (61 yards on 7 rushes) lost a fumble at the 3-yard-line on a play that looked like Gokan should have been ruled down by contact with the ground.

Instead, there was no whistle on the play and North Chicago's Jajuan Harris raced 97 yards with the fumble in the other direction to cut the gap to 28-6 with 7:31 left in the first half.

The Mustangs were not fazed by the potential momentum-breaker as Fisher hit a wide-open Hicks over the middle for an 11-yard TD pass and a 35-6 lead 4:15 before halftime.

Then for good measure, Fisher ran right and threw back to the left for an 8-yard TD pass to Hicks to boost the lead to 42-6 with just 41.5 seconds to go in the second quarter.

"I couldn't be happier with the offense, the offensive line was dominating the line of scrimmage, our guys were playing really sharp, and they weren't making mental errors," said Fisher, who was 8-for-13 passing for 139 yards. "We were catching them off guard, and we have a lot of different threats at a lot of different positions so they can't key on one player."

A 10-yard TD run by Gokan 1:47 into the third quarter put the Warhawks away as the 49-7 lead meant there was a running clock for the rest of the game.

Reserve quartertback Reid Rubio was under heavy pressure, but he somehow found Woolford for a 64-yard TD pass late in the third quarter to account for the final score.

The Mustangs had 26 first downs in the contest to only four for North Chicago.

"He (Fisher) is a great kid, he's a really good athlete, and he's got some good kids around him," said Calhoun, whose team had 449 total yards of offense after compiling 457 total yards last week against Elgin. "No. 21 (Woolford) has been injured so this is his first game back and No. 44 (Hicks) is a playmaker."