Highland Park's quick start sinks Vernon Hills

A second-place finish in Class 5A last season by the Vernon Hills football team is proving to be a hard act to follow.

By early in the second quarter, the Cougars were trailing Central Suburban League North Division rival Highland Park by 3 touchdowns Friday night and it turned out to be an insurmountable deficit.

The 27-14 loss on their home field was their fourth straight defeat after they opened the season with a victory at Grayslake Central.

Three juniors had big games for the Giants, who scored their second straight victory following three consecutive losses. Jared Bloom went on touchdown runs of 38 and 15 yards and quarterback John Sakos threw scoring passes of 5 and 69 yards to Giancarlo Volpentesta.

It was the first start for Bloom. He was filling in for injured Ryan Brinks, who scored three touchdowns in the previous week's triumph at Prospect, and he spearheaded the ground game.

"Before tonight he played sparingly," said coach Joe Horeni. "He's got good vision, he'll stick his nose in there and he'll bounce off tacklers."

Vernon Hills Coach Bill Bellecomo likes for his team to pass the football and, with the Cougars facing a big early deficit, junior, quarterback Derek Jarrell was throwing incessantly. But the Giants' pass rush was ferocious, forcing Jarrell to throw while under pressure and sacking him frequently.

Leading the rush were junior linebacker Noah Morgenstern and senior lineman Tyler Hunter.

"Noah can be an elite player if he realizes his potential," Horeni said. "Tyler is a transfer kid from a military family and he's helping us a lot."

Vernon Hills scored its first touchdown on Jarrell's 7-yard pass to Jack Himel with 2:28 left in the first half and senior Devin Papiernik's extra point kick reduced the deficit to 21-7.

But Highland Park answered with Bloom's 15-yard run midway through the third quarter and the Cougars didn't score again until Jarrell connected with his primary receiver, senior Luke Perlin, on a 15-yard scoring play with 80 seconds remaining in the contest.

Michael Rooney's onside kick after Perlin's touchdown was recovered by Kyle Fasbinder but the Cougars were unable to make a miracle comeback because of the stifling pressure the Giants' defense put on Jarrell.

"We battled tonight," Bellecomo said. "My biggest complaint is that first quarter. We also had opportunities and just didn't make plays. We had the ball in the red zone three times and only got 7 points.

"We've got to be able to do some things and finish some things."