Trophy-winning effort by Elk Grove
Every high school football team still playing in Illinois wants to get their hands on the biggest trophies of all on the final weekend of November in Champaign.
But it was a big deal for Elk Grove to grab hold of the Mayor's Cup trophy a on a picturesque final Saturday afternoon in October before a big home crowd at Haskell Stadium.
It meant the Grenadiers were celebrating and moving on in the postseason after a 36-14 victory over Conant in their much-anticipated Class 7A first-round playoff game.
“I gave the thing a big kiss and finally got to hold it,” said Grens' senior leader Dejan Basara after they evened the series at 19-19 in their first postseason meeting.
“(Elk Grove Mayor Craig Johnson) talked to us Monday about how important this game was,” said Grens junior linebacker Mike Maize, who had 2 sacks and 2 stops for no gain. “Right there we knew this was a really big game to the whole community and everyone involved in it.”
And the fourth-seeded Grens (9-1) got big efforts everywhere, including the return of Basara at quarterback to rush for 96 yards and 4 touchdowns, to set up another big game next Saturday. They will host No. 5 Machesney Park Harlem (9-1), a 41-31 winner over No. 12 Rockton Hononegah.
“We love him,” Elk Grove senior wide receiver-defensive back Jeff Miceli said of having Basara under center for the first time since he broke his collarbone in Week 4.
Not that Miceli didn't enjoy it when sophomore Adam O'Malley took his turns at quarterback with Basara moving out to a new position at tight end.
O'Malley (9-for-15, 185 yards) found Miceli four times for 140 yards and a play-action fake pitch set up a 35-yard hookup for a 15-0 lead. Miceli's grabs of 60 and 36 yards set up Basara's 1-yard runs for leads of 22-0 with 53.8 seconds left in the half and 36-7 with 8:37 to play.
“I think this week it was really hard for them to prepare because they didn't know what was coming,” said Basara, who also played linebacker for the second straight week.
“I feel our artillery has gone up substantially,” said Miceli, who also forced a fumble recovered by Mike Bishoff at the Elk Grove 16 on Conant's first possession. “We have so many aspects around the ball. It's amazing to see it.”
But 13th-seeded Conant (6-4) coach Bill Modelski thought the bigger factor was in the trenches.
Two-way workhorses Greg Johnsen and Dan Egan along with Brian Mack, Martin Diaz and Kevin O'Malley offensively and Johnny Assimakopoulos defensively gave Elk Grove the physical presence that has led to an eight-game winning streak.
“They played a great football game and took it to us,” said Modelski, whose team was hurt by 9 penalties for 95 yards. “I was disappointed in our ability or willingness to match it.
“After the first drive I thought we were OK with it but we had some implosions that resulted in big situations that you can't have happen in any game.”
Elk Grove's game-opening drive of 78 yards in 11 plays set the tone. Stefan Skoneczka rushed for 29 yards, Basara scored from 7 yards and holder Fernando Lozano ran for the conversion off a fake.
“We just handled them up front,” said Elk Grove coach Brian Doll. “(Center) Martin Diaz, Mack and O'Malley picked up a lot of the blitzes we prepared for all week.”
Conant got a spark right out of halftime when Tom Zidek returned the kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown to cut the deficit to 22-7 and Adam Starks' stop forced a three-and-out.
Conant drove to midfield but standout junior receiver Tim Manczko suffered a separated shoulder on Kishan Patel's tackle for a 2-yard loss. Maize ended the threat with a sack of Matt Cullen (18-for-26, 229 yards), who threw a 55-yard touchdown pass to Mark McNiff with 4:22 left.
“Our defensive line has done really well this year and they're doing all the dirty work,” Maize said after Conant had minus-2 yards rushing until gaining 31 on the game's final possession. “I've got the easy part because they take away the linemen and open up the gaps for me. We work great with each other.”
Which was displayed in trophy-winning style.