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Mitz notches win No. 250 as Jacobs rolls McHenry

Sometimes a win is just a win. But Jacobs's 35-7 road trouncing of McHenry Friday night, this one was special.

The win marked the 250th career victory for Golden Eagles head coach Bill Mitz, who coached at Stevenson from 1982-2009 before moving over to Jacobs in 2010. Mitz currently ranks 22nd in career wins in Illinois state history. The win, ironically, came on the same field where he got his maiden win 36 years ago.

And he didn't even know it.

"Really?," said a surprised Mitz when told of his feat. "I think (assistant coach) Bubba's (Smith) been with me for 200 of those. We've been together 36 years. That's crazy. I'm not sure what it says about me, but I know I've coached with some great guys and I've had some great kids over the years."

Mitz moves within one game of both Marian Catholic head coach Dave Mattio (1975-2012) and St. Joseph's of Ogden's Dick Duvall (1988-2015) who are tied with 251 career victories. Both Al Martin (DuQuoin, 1988-2014) and Don Kemp (Homer, 1951-52; Arenzville, 1951-58; and Concord - Triopia, 1959-88) are within striking distance this season at 254 wins.

Quarterback Anthony Wilson (4-for-9, 65 yards passing and 33 yards on 6 carries) directed the Golden Eagles' offense, but a trio of running backs did most of the damage.

Junior Jacob Mobeck racked up 125 yards on just nine carries, but on one of those the 5-foot-9, 182-pound junior just exploded out of a pack and the touchdown after 86 yards and a cloud of dust put Jacobs (3-1, 3-1) on top 21-7 with 3:55 left in the third quarter. The Golden Eagles were never threatened after that.

In addition to Mobeck, senior Jake Michels had 56 yards on 13 carries and classmate Tommy Subaric added 48 on 15 totes. Michels scored twice on runs of 3 and 5 yards, and Subaric added another from 4 yards out.

"I think we kinda shot ourselves in the foot in the first half," explained Mitz. "Their crowd was pretty crazy and really helped them a lot. But Mobeck just keeps getting better and better. It was a good victory - and bonus, we got to play a lot of kids, too."

Jacobs took the opening kickoff and drove 68 yards on 10 plays, with Michels taking it in from the 3 with 8:10 left in the quarter. The Warriors (0-4, 0-3) blocked Ricky Coates's kick, and the Golden Eagles owned a 6-0 lead after 12 minutes.

On the first play from scrimmage in the second quarter, Wilson rolled left and connected with Daniel Klein for a 35-yard gain all the way to the McHenry 8. Four plays later Subaric scored on a counter play from the 4. Mitz elected to go for the deuce conversion, and Wilson found Klein in the end zone to make it 14-0 Jacobs.

With 3:59 remaining in the first half, McHenry forced the Golden Eagles to punt and quarterback Chris Zieba (9 for 22, 95 yards, two interceptions) took over at his own 4 and engineered a masterful 96-yard scoring march. Zieba completed 5 of 7 passes on the 13-play drive that culminated with a 9-yard run by Braden Crowley (30 yards on 12 carries) that trimmed the Jacobs lead to 14-7 at halftime.

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