Hawks able to snap skid vs. Sabres
Bartlett Press
Fri Oct 02, 2009, 10:37 AM CDT
Bartlett, IL -
For much of the first half last Friday it looked as if another slow start was going to hamper Bartlett’s football team.
Penalties killed any semblance of momentum or consistency, and after scoring the game’s first touchdown the Hawks found themselves tied 7-7 with Streamwood late in the first half.
But quarterback A.J. Bilyeu helped engineer a touchdown drive in the final three minutes of the first half, then did the same early in the second half — and Bartlett was on its way to a 38-14 win over the Sabres.
“We got off to a slow start,” said Bartlett head coach Tom Meaney, whose team was flagged for as many infractions in the first half as it had in the previous three games. “As coaches we were a little uptight, a little angry because we weren’t executing as well as we would have expected.”
After Streamwood leveled the score on Derrick King’s 5-yard touchdown pass from Nick Pryor with 3:03 left in the first half, Bilyeu directed the Hawks on a seven-play, 58-yard drive capped by his 8-yard scoring pass to Zach Karys to put Bartlett (2-3 overall, 1-2 in the Upstate Eight Conference) ahead 14-7.
“We were really pleased with what we did right before halftime,” Meaney said. “We put together a nice drive. We executed well and the kids stepped up.
“We looked real good going down the field.”
The Hawks kept it going with a time-consuming drive in the third quarter that ended with Bilyeu’s 11-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Thabuteau with 6:27 left in the stanza.
“That drive really helped secure the game for us,” Meaney said. “That gave us the momentum.”
Less than three minutes later Thabuteau had a 53-yard scoring run that put Bartlett up 28-7.
Playing with the lead, Bartlett’s defense stepped up its pressure. Eric Moreno and Luke O’Connor had fumble recoveries to stifle Streamwood (1-4, 0-3) drives. Lineman Will DeCoste’s interception and return set up O’Connor’s 3-yard touchdown run to make it 35-7. Alex Busch’s 38-yard field goal made it 38-7 before the Sabres got a late touchdown from Alex Morrow.
“The defense played good,” Meaney said. “They worked hard and they played hard.”
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