For one reason or another–mainly turnovers and mental mistakes–Conant was unable to showcase its offense Thursday night.
Which is to say the Cougars didn’t grind it out.
The second half was a different story. No. 19 Conant completely dominated the ball to come from behind and defeat Fremd 23-9 in the Mid-Suburban West opener for both teams in Hoffman Estates.
Conant’s ball-control running attack helped the Cougars (5-0, 1-0) remain undefeated after they trailed Fremd 9-7 at halftime.
“We came out in the first half and had some mental mistakes,” said Conant quarterback Jon Kosrow, who rushed for a game-high 103 yards and a touchdown and also passed for a score. “After halftime, we showed how we play football.”
Conant embarked on a time-draining 13-play, 80-yard drive midway through the third quarter and finally scored on the first play of the fourth on Kosrow’s 4-yard run. Evan Shy ran in the two-point conversion to make it 15-9.
Conant got the ball back when Joe Coleman made an athletic play to recover the onside kick. The Cougars then ran 10 plays, punctuated by Leon Wiggins’ 1-yard plunge, making it 23-9 after the two-point conversion.
Wiggins (59 yards rushing) also caught a 13-yard TD pass late in the first quarter.
“We just challenged the kids at halftime,” Conant coach Dave Pendergast said. “That’s our base stuff–that’s the stuff we run all the time.”
Fremd (3-2, 0-1) erased a 7-0 deficit in the second quarter when Ray Woodford (85 yards, 11 carries) scored on a 16-yard run and Adam Ford booted a 42-yard field goal with 8 minutes 6 seconds remaining in the first half to give Fremd a 9-7 advantage at intermission.
