Hersey gets 5th win in impressive fashion

Hersey’s football team came into its final home football game on Friday night looking for a fifth win to put itself clearly in the playoff picture.

The Huskies did exactly that with a 49-7 Mid-Suburban League East triumph over Rolling Meadows on Senior Night at Roiland Goins Stadium in Arlington Heights.

Senior quarterback Colton Gumino was 6-of-8 for 125 yards and junior Brandon Jenkins rushed for 174 yards from 18 carries to help the Huskies improve to 5-3 and 3-1 while Rolling Meadows, still in the playoff hunt, stands at 5-3 and 2-2.

The game was the first in MSL football history to feature a pair of head coaches who were former NFL players.

Hersey’s Tom Nelson and Rolling Meadows Robbie Gould were teammates with the Bears during the 2013 off-season training camp.

“It’s a nice thing when you see things come together like tonight,” said Nelson, a former wide receiver and safety who was a member of the Bengals, Eagles, Bears, Panthers and Ravens. “I feel like we put a lot of time into the game plan, and when kids execute, good stuff happens.”

Operating behind linemen Jackson Organ, Sal Marabotti, DJ Maloney, Jack Nolan, Ehren Dammann and Thomas Mulder, who also made a big presence on the defensive line with 3 sacks, Hersey scored on all five of its possessions in the first half for a 35-7 lead.

“Being with my boys on Senior Night is very special to me,” Mulder said. “We practiced hard all week and it really came together today.

“I give all the credit (for the sacks) to my other linemen. I can’t do it without them. Credit to Nick Alquist, Connor Moga, Bernard Erhabor, Niko Ziabaras and all of them. Obviously, this means a lot on Senior Night to keep climbing. It’s been the mojo for our team this season and it’s always on to the next week after a win so we’re excited to see Wheeling next week.”

The Huskies went 53 yards in two plays on their first possession, capped by Gumino’s 48-yard TD strike to a wide open Luke Casey.

Meadows answered with a 72-yard drive, capped by Quincy Johnson’s 16-yard TD pass to Arman Lepuzanovic to tie the game at 7-7 with 24 seconds left in the first quarter.

Hersey then responded with 42 straight points.

Sophomore Josh Rigg’s kickoff return to the 37-yard line set up another two-play scoring drive capped by Jenkins’ 58- yard TD scamper on the last play of the first quarter for a 14-7 lead following Chase Ries’ first of 7 extra point kicks.

Hersey scored 3 touchdowns in the second quarter, including Jenkins’ 23 -yard TD run (8:03), Jenkins’ 3-yard run (following an 18-yard reception by Riggs) and Cheydon Georgacakis’ 70-yard interception return (32.6 seconds).

Hersey added two more touchdowns in the second half, one on a 6-yard TD run by Gumino with 6:34 left in the third quarter and the other on senior Owen Joseph’s 47-yard TD strike to sophomore Austin Schultz in the game’s final minutes.

Johnson, who completed 5 of his first 6 passes for 63 yards, was injured on the second play of the second quarter and did not return.

“We will get a reevaluation in the morning and see what the severity of it is,” said Gould, who kicked for the Bears, 49ers and Giants in the NFL. “Obviously out of precaution we held him out.

“Hersey is a good football team. Tommy has done a great job taking over the program. I have a lot of respect for what he has done. You’ve got to make sure when you play a team like that, you’ve got to rally to No. 2 (Jenkins). He’s a really good running back and they scored really quick on us. I was proud of the way our guys came back to tie it.

“Obviously with losing our quarterback, I’m proud of the way our guys fought. We’ll go back to the drawing board and get ready for the next one. We need one more to clinch a spot in the playoffs.”

Hersey has appeared in the playoffs the last two seasons under Nelson.

“He’s awesome,” Gould said of Nelson. “If you’re looking at a program you want to mirror, it’s what he has done at Hersey.”

“When you start out 0-2, high school kids can go south,” Nelson said of this fall. “So I’m proud of our kids for being a resilient group and continuing to build and get better every week.”