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Wheeling pulls together, rolls past Maine East

As Wheeling and Maine East underwent their pregame warm-ups prior to their contest at Maine Memorial Stadium, both teams could empathize with one another as they both entered Friday night's contest with 0-2 records.

The visiting Wildcats had been outscored 71-19 in a pair of home losses to Glenbrook North and Schaumburg while the host Demons had been outscored 92-19 in losses to Fenton and Round Lake.

On this night, however it was the Wildcats' turn to successfully outscore the opponent. Wheeling defeated Maine East 57-7 in Park Ridge to post its first win of the season in round one of MSL-CSL crossover play.

"We got back to basics in terms of focusing on what we do," second-year Wheeling coach Brian Hauck said. "Getting better on our film study and game preparation, as well as remembering that we are a family. That's what I'm most proud of tonight."

That back-to-basics approach came in handy as the visitors found paydirt on 6 of their 8 first-half possessions during which they outgained the host Demons 304-38 during the first two quarters.

Beginning with their first offensive series which started on their own 47 thanks to a short punt, Wheeling (1-2) diligently moved down the field on a 5-play drive that saw its successful completion on a 41-yard Michael Best jump pass to Brandon Zettek with 8:19 left in the opening quarter. Best followed up with a 2-point conversion run to get the Wildcats on the board with an 8-0 advantage.

"I gotta give all the credit to our offensive coaches on that play call," Best said. "It all came together and Brandon did the rest."

Zettek paid homage to Best's spot-on accuracy.

"He (Best) had perfect timing," he added. "He was able to read the defense and put me in a position to complete the play."

Then, after a 22-yard return by Zettek off Maine East's second punt that set Wheeling up at the Demon 29, Best (9-for-11, 146 yards) connected with John Quintero on the following snap of the football to make the score 15-0.

Zettek set up Wheeling's third touchdown when he recovered a Maine East fumble at the Demon 23 that turned into 7 more points when Jonathon Panganiban (9 carries, 152 yards) took it in from the 1 four plays later to extend the Wheeling advantage to 22-0 at the 5:04 mark of the opening period.

After being stopped on their fourth and final series of the first 12 minutes of play, Wheeling's offense found the end zone on its next three possessions as Best found Zettek for a second time (7 yard TD pass), then ran one in from 26 yards out before Ryan Glassberg's 2-yard jaunt closed out the first-half scoring, leaving the Wildcats ahead 43-0 at halftime and triggering the running clock for the second half.

TD runs by Panganiban (65 yards) and Paul Ufir (28 yards) built the visitors' edge to 57-0 before a 1-yard run by Isaac O'Neil (13 carries, 109 yards) 55 seconds into the fourth quarter got Maine East its lone score of the evening.

Zettek talked about his team's defensive effort that kept Maine East in check throughout the contest which featured holding them to a combined 0-for-11 through the air.

"I gotta give great props to my teammates," he said. "We were able to be right on target with our linebackers and D-line. We came out ready to play and that led us to playing hard out there."

The Wildcats will look to reach the .500 mark when they host Vernon Hills next Friday, while the Demons make the trek to Hoffman Estates where the 3-0 Hawks await.

"We have to go back to work and do the same things we did this past week," Hauck said. "We will have to clean up some of the mistakes we made out there, but with the effort that I saw out of our guys those mistakes can be fixed."

Work that begins Saturday morning with film review by Best and his teammates.

"I'm looking forward to breaking down the game film and going back to our preparation for our next game at home," Best said. "We've been able to rally together as one team, one heartbeat, and this great win can only help us going forward."

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