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Big plays help Schaumburg sink Niles West

Schaumburg's football team needed a big fix, and needed it fast.

Niles West's blue-ribbon quarterback - Johnny Pabst - lit them up for 351 yards and touchdowns of 80, 55 and 52 yards in the first half. Make that, the first quarter.

So, with the defense rededicating itself to keeping his receivers in front of them, they didn't surrender another pass of more than 22 yards after the first quarter.

And the Saxons picked off two passes, one by Dakari Ferguson, who took it 94 yards for a TD, sprinting down the left sideline, thwarting a Niles West drive that likely would've resulted in a TD. Instead, Schaumburg used it to catapult itself on the way to a 35-28 win and a 2-1 record.

Ferguson had already returned a kickoff 80 yards for a TD, taking a reverse handoff that fooled the Wolves and knotted the score at 7.

When it comes to big plays, "My teammates are depending on me. They've got my back. I've got theirs," Ferguson said after crediting the defense for flushing Pabst and forcing him to telegraph the pick-six throw.

And it was Tyler Fredrickson who first sacked Pabst and then flushed him into an overthrow to end Niles West's last possession with 1:19 left to clinch the win.

"We kept coming back to, 'Trust the rules, trust each other," Schaumburg coach Mark Stilling said of the philosophy that let that unit make big plays when it had to, despite surrendering more than 500 yards in total offense.

"We're brothers. We buy into that," said Ferguson.

So does the offense, which did its part to keep Pabst and Co. off the field, playing ball control on the legs of Jordan Salgado and Hezekiah Trotter behind the blocking of Robert Grasse, Paul Anderson and David Drs and the cool scrambling and big-play ability of Justin Perez (12-16-168-0).

Ball-control scoring drives in the second, and fourth quarters turned the trick, taking advantage of field position provided by special teamers like Austin Anzelmo and defenders like John Macneal-Young. Anzelmo also had a pick off a deflection.

"I'm very confident in those guys," Salgado said of the offensive line, which really helped turn the flow of the game. "They did an outstanding job."

Anzelmo's return of a short punt to Niles West's 24 after the defense pinned the Wolves inside their own 5 that set up the game-winning score, Salgado's 1-yard leaper over a gritty Wolves defense.

"I had to do everything I could do to get in," for the go-ahead score, Salgado said after Schaumburg's defense had its only breakdown after the first quarter, allowing John Trinh's 14-yard TD scamper to tie it at 28.

"Mental toughness," Trotter said after contributing 24 yards rushing and 85 receiving, including a 36-yard TD in the first quarter. "We all wanted it. We'd all die for each other out there." Perez also found Duke Gray for a 36-yard score.

"There was tremendous synergy between the offense, the defense and special teams," Stilling said, after watching his team recover from an almost nightmarish first quarter.

Niles West suffered its first loss and is also 2-1.

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