By Ed Muniz-Photos by Jenn-Anne Gledhill
**Additional Photos are available for purchase on home page in photos, click High School and game photo**
The Conant Cougars celebrated their annual Homecoming last Friday. Kick starting the festivities, the Cougars played host to the Palatine Pirates with each team sporting identical records each having lost once in five games.
With numerous alumni in attendance, the Pirates soured the festive atmosphere, defeating the Cougars, 42-10.
Conant (4-2,0-2) started the game with a heavy dose of running-backs’ Dominic Mininni and Antonio Ramsey, pounding the Pirate defense which eventually led to a 29-yard field goal by Caden Ryan and a 3-0 lead.
Much to the dismay of the large Homecoming crowd, the Cougars never led again.
Responding to the Conant score, Palatine (5-1,2-0) used a good mixture of run and pass on their 8-play-drive that ended with Quarterback Tommy Elter scoring from four-yards out.Connor May added the point-after for the 7-3 lead. The Pirates never looked back.
“We’re executing very well,” said Pirates Head Coach Corey Olson. “When you can run the ball well like that, passing opens up too, but our receivers on the perimeter blocked their butts off. That’s part of our game getting out there and Thomas Coroneos, Ryan Donnelly, Nate Branch; those guys blocked their tails off out there.”
“We’re keeping our players humble and hungry and help them understand that you still have to perform every week. This is a tight group. We work hard for the kids, they work hard for us, it’s a really good environment.”
Dominick Ball featured the Pirates running attack. The Junior back was elusive and slick and used speed to get to the edge. His ground-game totaled nearly 170-yards, but he also used his versatility hauling in a few throws from Elter, tallying 107 yards, including a 72-yard shovel-pass touchdown.
“For me, it always starts with the line and the perimeter blocking, when they execute, I’m able to execute even better, it felt easy.” said Ball. “Coach Donnelly told me I need to start sticking my foot in the ground and hitting the hole, and I started doing that since and its obviously helped.”
The Pirates defense stymied the Cougar offense for the most part. The Cougars did go on an 8-play drive with Quarterback Matthew Maize shining during the next series. His runs and connection on passes eventually had Conant at the Pirates 23-yard-line, but two incompletion on third and fourth downs stalled the promising drive and gave the ball back to the visitors.
The Pirates extended their lead to 14-3 on the following 13-play series. Ball provided 51-yards prior to the direct snap to Nate Branch, which saw him power in from three-yards out for the Pirates second score.
The Conant offense was moving the ball but couldn’t find the one big play to spark them and eventually saw a Maize pass fall incomplete as the first half concluded.
The Pirates used just two plays to score opening the second half. A shovel-pass to Ball from Elter wound up in the end-zone 72-yards later and upped the Pirates’ lead to 21-3 after another May conversion-kick.
The Cougars, as it turned out, would score their last points of the game on their own opening possession of the second half.
A 30-yard run by Cooper Hanson setup the eventual touchdown by Connor Minogue, who raced in from 13-yards. With the conversion-kick by Ryan, the score stood at 21-10.
The home crowd was hopeful of a comeback, but that never materialized as the Pirates would dominate much of the play for the rest of the game.
The Pirates added more scoring. First, Elter connected with Branch on an 11 -yards touchdown pass, followed by a 33-yard streak by Ball and lastly TJ Luckett raced in from 9-yards out to conclude the Pirates scoring barrage.
The Cougars made mistakes or couldn’t convert when needed in this game, never nearing the offense folks had expected, scoring 202 points in their previous five games.
Credit the Pirates defense, they gave up yards but came up with stops when needed.
Junior Pirate Lineman’ Filip Rolek was a force the Cougars had to deal with all game. He along with several of his teammates played aggressively and were vital in stopping the Cougar offense.
“We were planning to do our assignments, the D-Line was supposed to tackle the dive and the Linebackers were supposed to scrape over us, and I think we did that great,” said Rolek.
“As a team, whenever one of goes down, we pick each other up and fight along each other for the win. Our leaders, Nate Branch, dominate the ball and it rubs off on us all. We are a close, cohesive team.”
The Pirates also had stellar play defensively from Daevion Farrow, Aiden Wimer, Jaylen Williams, JD Wardle, Michael Tokar, Josh Reiswig and others.
The Cougars will regroup and head to Fremd next Friday, while Palatine will host Barrington , both in conference play.
