Hawks Crush Evanston In Football Finale

When Mike Burzawa gets together with the rest of his football staff trying to come up with a game plan against MaIne South’s wunderkind quarterback Jameson Purcell over the next couple of years, he’ll dip into the film archives for tape of Evanston’s first quarter against the Hawks Friday night.

That is, if he hasn’t actually burned the tape before that.

Trailing just 13-0 at halftime, the wheels came off for the Wildkits in the second half of a 55-22 shellacking at Lazier Field that ended their football season at 3-6 overall.

Purcell, a sophomore who has already drawn serious recruiting interest from more than a dozen Division I universities, completed 14-of-22 pass attempts for 211 yards and three touchdowns as the Hawks clinched another Central Suburban League South division title. Maine South will take a 6-3 record into the Illinois High School Association state playoffs that begin next week.

Burzawa’s plot to upset the Hawks was clicking on all cylinders in the first half. The idea for the Kits was to control the clock and move the chains enough to keep South’s high octane offense off the field.

It worked well --- until it didn’t.

“In that first quarter we executed just the way we wanted to. We moved the chains and chewed up the clock and just wanted to try to get the game (close) into the fourth quarter,” Burzawa said.

“We really didn’t give up anything in the second quarter, either. Then the wheels came off in the third quarter. We had a few turnovers, Maine South got into a rhythm on offense and the game got away from us. To beat Maine South, you have to execute at a high level for four quarters --- and we only did it for one.”

Maine South outscored ETHS 42-22 in the second half. Evanston’s dismal performance on defense saw the hosts put up little resistance as the division champs piled up 148 yards rushing and 231 passing and only punted once in the entire contest.

Purcell zipped touchdown passes to Mason Patras (18 and 80 yards) and Andrew Mullan (5 yards), Michael Dellumo added a pair of rushing touchdowns and J.J. Schlenhardt kicked two field goals covering 24 and 41 yards for the winners.

Evanston managed 77 yards rushing combined with senior quarterback Colin Livatino’s 192 through the air. Livatino was back in action following a one-game suspension and accounted for TD passes to Dallas Amos (4 yards) and sophomore Justin Johnson (64 yards) but was also intercepted twice.

Evanston hasn’t defeated Maine South on the field since 1999 but an encouraging first half performance left the Wildkits poised for an upset. Schlenhardt’s two field goals in the second quarter in the last 1:29 on the clock didn’t dim the hopes of a Senior Night crowd much.

But the Hawks started the second half with a 35-yard scoring drive after a botched onside kick try by ETHS and a 51-yard return of the kickoff by the Hawks’ Jacob Vitel. Dellumo scored on a 1-yard plunge and the visitors eventually scored on all six of their possessions in the second half.

Amos, a senior receiver who recently committed to play at Illinois State, caught 5 passes for 59 yards in the season finale.

“I’m proud of these kids, especially the seniors, for all of the courage they’ve shown this year,” Burzawa said. “It’s disappointing not to make the playoffs, but what was not disappointing for me was to see them grow from boys to men like they did, and watching how much they care. This is a special group that really loved the game of football. Our brotherhood is special.”