Tough end to season for tough-luck Vernon Hills

It's tough to be on the outside looking in.

That's the position in which the football teams at Vernon Hills and Chicago Marine finds themselves.

Vernon Hills and Chicago Marine were the only two 5-4 teams in the state that did not make the cut for the IHSA playoffs.

Teams are guaranteed a spot in the playoffs when they win at least six regular season games. Teams with five wins can make the playoffs if they have enough points, which are rewarded based on total wins by all nine opponents.

There were 60 teams with 5-4 records across the state that made the playoff field, with as many points as 56 (Marist) and as few as 29 (Havana).

Lake County teams Lake Forest (40 points), Grayslake North (37) and Libertyville (35) and North Chicago (35) all made the cut at 5-4.

Vernon Hills had 29 points, but unlike Havana, did not make the cut because of the tiebreaker. The Cougars lost the tiebreaker with Havana in defeated opponents' wins. Vernon Hills had 6, Havana had 7.

Chicago Marine had 24 total points.

"We had control over our own destiny during the season when we were playing teams like Highland Park and Deerfield (both losses)," Vernon Hills coach Bill Bellecomo said. "You can't have control over points and at the end of the day, no one wants to be in that position. You never want it to come down to points."

But since it did, Bellecomo had some important points to make at his team's postseason meeting on Monday.

"We had to tell our seniors goodbye and then we talked to our (remaining) kids about what we need to do in the offseason in order to avoid this (disappointment of missing the playoffs) and avoid these feelings," Bellecomo said. "We have 9 guys back on defense and 7 guys back on offense, so expectations will be high. But we need to get a lot stronger in the weight room. We had a lot of issues this year with injuries and we need to get past that. One way we can do that is by getting a lot stronger in the weight room. That helps a lot with injury prevention.

All was good, until ... : The season was going great for Vernon Hills going into Week 5.

The Cougars were 3-1 and were well on their way to a 34-9 Week 5 win over Niles North. And then things went south.

Star running back Ryan Mann went down with a broken leg against Niles North and was even carted off in an ambulance.

Four other starters also went down with injuries, including another season-ender. Cornerback Alex Gil was lost for the season.

Justin Morris and Giovanni Zullo were also injured.

"It was rough," Vernon Hills coach Bill Bellecomo said of the Niles North game. "When you get a lot of guys injured like that, now you've got to put sophomores in big roles. But the thing is, we still competed hard. I really liked the way our young kids overcame adversity."

He's the Mann: When Ryan Mann went down with a broken leg against Niles North in Week 5, Vernon Hills was without its main Mann.

The junior running back had 573 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns on the season.

"It was a freak accident," Vernon Hills coach Bill Bellecomo said. "He caught a pass and went to turn up field and a kid hit him in the leg and it took the full blow as he planted. If the hit happened a second later, he would have been fine.

"It was tough to lose him because he was doing great. All the coaches at the all-conference meeting kept talking about what a special player Ryan is. But he's going to be back, and he's going to make a full recovery."

According to Bellecomo, Mann is already starting to walk on his leg and is making plans for getting back into the weight room.

"He's dying to get back," Bellecomo said. "He's going to make a full recovery and he's going to get going again soon."

Airtime: With lead running back Ryan Mann out for the season starting in Week 5, the spotlight of the Vernon Hills offense shifted squarely onto senior quarterback Thomas Monken, who transferred last offseason from Libertyville.

Monken ran with the added responsibilities and the Cougars started piling up the passing yards.

Monken finished with 1,979 passing yards and 19 touchdowns, connecting most often with Justin Morris and Jake Pieper. Morris caught 8 touchdowns while Pieper caught 5 touchdowns.

"I thought Thomas really did the best he could," Vernon Hills coach Bill Bellecomo said. "He was really in a tough situation because once we lost Ryan (Mann), we just kept throwing the ball and everyone knew it. We got blitzed a lot and Thomas got pressured a lot, but he did a really good job. He was one of the leading passers in Lake County. It was a blessing to have him as our quarterback this year."

Just short: Despite a strong finish, Wauconda just missed the playoffs at 4-5.

The Bulldogs ran off three wins in their final four games, including a 19-6 upset win over Grant, a playoff team, in their season finale.

"I thought our defense really played well (at the end of the season), particularly against Grant," Wauconda coach Dave Mills said. "Our defense was lights out. They played with a lot of energy."

Wauconda held Grant scoreless until the final minute of the game and held Grant to fewer than 100 rushing yards. Grant was also only 1-for-17 on third-down conversions.

"We made a couple of adjustments defensively and we just got after it," Mills said. "We really limited Grant."

It helped that Wauconda got three of its key players - Colin Westfall, Alec Smith and Aidan Stephan - back from injury.

Westfall was out with a knee injury and Smith and Stephan had both broken their hands. When they returned, they both played with casts.

"We missed them when they were out," Mills said. "It really helped to have them back. As seniors, they wanted to get out there and play in their last game."