After a 2-0 Start, GBN Football Has High Hopes

Coming off of victories in their first two games, Glenbrook North's football team has high hopes this year.

They returned to the playoffs last year after a losing season in 2008, but this year, the Spartans believe they can win the Central Suburban North.

"That's our goal," head coach Bob Pieper said. "But now our goal is to win [next] week. We're gonna wait until we get there. We've got a lot of improvement to do."

Senior captain Nick Freund wasn't as shy about making a bold prediction.

"Our goal is first of all, win conference," Freund said. "We obviously want to play one game at a time, but we're going deep in the playoffs."

GBN went 6-4 last year, finishing third in the conference and losing in the first round of the playoffs to Crystal Lake South.

Now the team has more confidence and two early wins under its belt.

The Aug. 28 season opener was a 14-13 win at Waukegan.

"A win is a win and we certainly will take it," Pieper said after the game. "It was winning ugly as I just told them. We made too many mistakes. I mean we got down to the six and threw an interception that he ran back 98 yards, or something like that, and then we had one mental breakdown on defense so their 13 points were two plays basically."

The two scoring Waukegan plays were the interception while the Spartans were down at their opponent's six-yard line and a 79-yard option run by Maurice Childs.

Outside of that one big run the Spartan defense, which returned only two starters, was able to shut down Waukegan's attack.

"Eight or nine new starters on defense. They're young, they stepped up, they played well," Pieper said.

Last year GBN beat the Bulldogs 28-0 to open the season, so on paper a close affair may be a bit of a surprise. Pieper was impressed with what Waukegan showed.

"That's a good team, Waukegan," he said. "[Coach Nick Browder] has done a nice job with them. They're very organized, very disciplined, they know what they're doing so coming out here with a win for us, we're happy with it."

Senior quarterback Zack Hilgendorf has receivers Armin Batang and Trevor Ponticelli (who made a one-handed catch for a 28-yard touchdown in the opener) as weapons for the passing game. Freund and sophomore Grant Rushing split the bulk of the carries and have a big offensive line creating holes for them.

In the season's second game on Sept. 3, rushing accounted for two scores in the team's 28-0 win at home over the Lane Tech Indians.

The young defense has allowed only seven points through two games, and that doesn't surprise captain Kyle Wagley.

"I've known these guys for a while and I know that they're all playmakers on defense," he said.

However, as any captain will say, there's always room for improvement.

"I think we need to work on communication," Wagley said. "We had a couple communication breakdowns and that's when [Waukegan] scored. So I think if we communicate a little bit better, we'll be good."

On the offensive side of the ball, Freund wants his group to cut down on penalties and improve in the red zone.

"We made some mistakes here and there, the penalties killed us but you know we're happy with the win," Freund said after the Waukegan game. "We're young, but we got the job done.

"We got to just get better all around. The offense, we got to finish drives more. I think that was a big problem, we were in the red zone and didn't score. It's on everybody," he said.

Pieper attributed some of the mistakes to jitters.

"I thought we moved the ball pretty well, we just couldn't capitalize," Pieper said about the Waukegan game. "We can't make those kind of mistakes, but you know first game, jitters for both teams. The great thing about the first game is that you get to watch the film and fix what you saw.

"Our goal was to win the first game so whether it's by one point or 21 points, win the first game is all we were looking for," he said.

The Spartans played a cleaner game in the win over Lane, but will face tougher test in playing the New Trier Trevians in Winnetka at 7:30 p.m. Friday.