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Hoffman Estates roars back to beat Palatine

Hoffman Estates coach Tim Heyse calls Jordan Lane, "the toughest football player I have ever known".

Lane made his way through the Palatine defense and caught a 14-yard pass from a scrambling Kyle Krogstad with no time left on the clock to score a 47-44 Homecoming win.

"I just worked my way through the end zone," said Lane. "I saw Kyle scrambling and when I was free I waved and he got the ball to me. This was just a great win."

The Hawks improved to 6-0 and 2-0 in the Mid-Suburban West and Palatine, which led 31-12 at halftime, fell to 1-5 and 0-2 in the conference.

"Even when we were down at halftime," said Krogstad, "I felt we could come back at them. We made some really great plays in the second half. No one ever gave up."

"I told the players at halftime that if you don't think we can still win this game to go to the locker room," said Heyse. "These kids just played a terrific second half. It was an incredible game."

Krogstad finished the night 26-for-40 for 275 yards. He had 4 touchdown passes and 3 interceptions.

"Kyle never hung his head throwing the three interceptions," said Heyse. "He's that type of player."

With 3:23 left in the game Palatine led 44-33 following Ronald Todd's 6-yard touchdown run.

Then the fireworks happened!

Hoffman Estates drove 67 yards in 2:14 to score on a Krogstad-to-Lane touchdown to make the score 44-41 with 1:09 remaining.

The Hawks' Bryan Smith came up with an onside kick recovery which gave Hoffman Estates the ball on its own 45-yard line.

Krogstad's main target on the drive was Malik Whitehead, who with downfield blocking by Lane helped move the ball to the 14 with 11 seconds left.

Krogstad misfired on first down 6.3 left.

Krogstad was run out of the pocket and was touched by several Pirates but kept his balance and made the throw to Lane.

"I just followed him when I was in the end zone and he found me," said Lane.

Palatine quarterback Zac Garnmeister had a career game, connecting on 21 of 32 passes with 1 interception and 3 touchdowns good for 389 yards. Jake Gronwick caught 6 passes for 239 yards and 2 touchdowns.

"This was a tough one to lose," said Palatine coach Corey Olson. "We had some mistakes in the second half when I thought we could have scored more. Our kids are tough and they will learn from this one."

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