Buffalo Grove makes it 3-0 by beating Maine West
It will be home sweet home for the Buffalo Grove Bison football team next week.
But things on the road haven't been so bad.
The Bison won their third straight nonconference game on opponent's turf, this time a 42-6 triumph at Maine West on Friday.
"It's nice to get this one," said BG coach Jeff Vik, whose team has started out 3-0 for the third time in his six seasons. "We came out with a tough start having to play three road games. Finally, we are at home next week (Niles North). It's pretty exciting. We're doing a nice job on offense."
Following two 41-point games, the offense added 1 more point in Friday's game as quarterback Michael Cervantes rushed for 141 yards (10 attempts) and completed 1 pass for 17 yards to Ian Hoffman. Cole Nixon gained 136 yards on 9 carries for BG and teammate Scott Murray picked up 74 yards (8 rushes).
"They are a good football team," said Maine West coach George Klupchak. "They are really well coached, very physical and they come at you downhill on both sides of the ball whether it's linebackers or their offensive line."
Defensively, Trystan Anderson, Eli Shereshovech, George Shiakallis, Dominick Marrazzo, Johnny Perot and senior Connor Sharp, getting his first start at defensive end, all played key roles for the Bison, who held the Warriors (1-2) to under 35 yards rushing 60 passing.
"Our defense played their butts off," Cervantes said. "When they can do that and we shut teams down to below 14 points, and we put points on the board, it makes it hard to stop us. It was a great job by the defense."
After a three-and-out from the Bison defense, Buffalo Grove's offense took over at the Warriors' 31-yard line and needed just three plays to reach the end zone. Cervantes scored his first of 3 touchdowns with a 5-yard run that followed a 34-yard burst by Nixon.
Cervantes sprinted 47 yards in a keeper for his second TD with 1:44 left in the first quarter.
The visitors tacked on 3 more touchdowns in the second quarter.
Running behind linemen Andrew Smith, CJ Relias, Dane Cottrell, Matthew Wolverton, Trystan Anderson and Shereshovech, Scott Murray took an option pitch from Cervantes and raced 46 yards to the end zone.
"Our linemen did a phenomenal job," Cervantes added. "They make it super easy when they block like that."
The final two scores were a 12-yard run by Nixon and a 10-yard dash by Cervantes with 29 seconds left in the first half to make it 35-0.
The Bison's final TD came with 4:24 left in the third quarter on Murray's 6-yard run to make it 42-0.
Warriors sophomore Thomas Delaney scored on the game's final play when he went 5 yards to cap a 79-yard drive.
"Our whole team responded to the challenge in the second half," Klupchak said., "There was no quit in our guys and I thought you saw that with the last touchdown drive. It's great to see your second-string quarterback fight like that and still have the starting offensive line in front of him. Those guys were fighting the whole game. That's what we talked about at half. The scoreboard doesn't matter. You have the opportunity to get a little bit better by simply finishing the game. I was proud of them for doing that, for sure."