Football team wins game for first time since 2013

Bradley Hubly, Staff Reporter

Getting their first win of the football season versus Buffalo Grove, not only was it the first win of the season, but it was also the first win for Coach John Sigmund as the head coach. “It is extremely exciting,” Coach Sigmund humbly said, “More or less more importantly for the boys and the program and school and the community. It was exciting for everyone involved.”

Going into week five, better known as the school’s homecoming week, the football team was riding high on momentum with nothing but winning in their minds. The Grens just barely got edged out by the Rolling Meadows Mustangs, 28-26. Coach Sigmund explained the loss. “At the opportune time we need to make the plays, and Rolling Meadows did, and that is why we lost that game.”

Going into week six against Hersey, some changes needed to be made so that the team could come out with a win. “We have to limit our mistakes on the offensive side of the football and defense we have to be assignment sound.” Sigmund said.

With a comeback win in mind the Elk Grove Grenadiers went into the game on Friday night confident like always. Hersey scored on its first four offensive possessions so the team was battling from behind the whole game. Even with the 40 yard touchdown pass to Josh Collier and a three yard touchdown run by Peter Green, they still found themselves down 31-14 at halftime.

The second half seemed to be more of the same as Hersey scored on their first drive to make it 38-14. Kyle Anderson bolted for a 70 yard touchdown run followed by a 4 yard run by Azeez Alabi to close the gap and reignite the team’s hopes of winning with the score at 38-28. Right when the Grens had momentum Hersey sucked the air right out of the ball with a 60 yard touchdown to seal the deal. The Grenadiers scored one more touchdown, but it was not enough to surpass Hersey, and they lost, 45-35.

Week seven against Prospect was a very different story from the week six game against Hersey. Right from the beginning the ground game was clicking on all cylinders. Elk Grove had 371 rushing yards last Friday night against Prospect. It was most definitely a run-dominated game that night, with only one passing touchdown, which was by the Grenadiers in the first quarter.

On the first possession of the game Azzez Alabi torched the Knights defense for an 88 yard touchdown run. The Grenadiers never looked back after that. They held on to the lead the entire game, adding one passing touchdown later that quarter from A.J Lorenz to Joey Gatziolis. Alabi added three more rushing touchdowns that night and had a total of 177 yards. Chuck Fleming pitched in with 12 rushes for 175 yards and one touchdown and Peter Green had 37 yards with one touchdown to account for the Grenadiers 47-31 win at Prospect last Friday night.

The game tonight is against Wheeling and is a pink out for breast cancer awareness.