A Disappointing End

Our GBN sophomore football team had an extremely frustrating end to our already disappointing season after our final game. Coming into our final game this week against Niles North we had a record od 3-0-1 with the tie coming aginst Highland Park. If we won the game we would have been outright conference champions.

Right from the start Niles North jumped out into an early lead. We were trailing 21-6 at half. We knew that the game was not over but needed to play very well to get back in the game. On the opening kick of the second half, we got exactly what we needed and returned it for a touchdown. The score then stood at 21-14. We then scored shortly later to make the score 21-20 Niles North.

The rest of the game was a battle between the two teams, no one wanted to give up. It all came down to a 4th down and 6 yards for Niles North to get the first and seal the victory with their 28-26 lead. However, right before the start of he play thunderclaps and lighting strikes in the impending storm set off the Thor Guard. Because of this we were forced to go inside, only to come back out 45 minutes later to finish the game. At the resume of play, Niles North decided to punt it away to us, giving us the ball at our own twenty-five with two minutes in the game. Despite some long completion, we could not get any farther than the Niles North thirty. The game ended with us on the losing end of a 28-26 score with Highland Park presumably winning conference. We'll be back next year on varsity to take the confernce title back.

Bears! Bears! Bears!

Ok, so the Bears are not doing phenomenal by any stretch of the imagination but they are in a tie for first place in the NFC North with the Packers. Their record stands at 4-3 and they could easily be 6-1 right now. Obviously they are not and this is due in large part to their inability to close games. Despite this they have a remarkably promising team. An offense that has been struggling this year and has a lot of play-makers that can move the ball down the field. Matt Forte, Bear's runningback, was named NFC North rookie of the year through midseason by ESPN writer Kevin Seifert. Seifert also named Lovie Smith coach of the year thus far in the NFC North and Kyle Orton MVP of the division. In addition to Seifert's accalades of Orton, Merrill Hoge, ESPN football analyst, named Orton his fifth best quarterback in the NFL at this point in the season. Although their record is not as good as it could be, I, along with many more Bears fans, am happy that the Bears are in such a good position to make the playoffs.

GBN Football 2 Games into Conference

It has been a tough season for our GBN sophomore football team thus far. After finishing with a 7-2 record our freshman year, our current 2-3-1 record is a huge disappointment. As I have said before injuries have really hurt us, but that is no reason to abort our season. We are now two games into 2008 conference play and we have already faced Maine West and Highland Park. We started off with a big 33-6 road win over Maine West. The score at half was just 7-6 in our favor but we turned it on in the second have and took the victory.
Highland Park turned out to be a huge test for our team this year. Despite our dominant performance against them last year, we only managed to pull out a tie this year. The game began with Highland Park scoring two touchdowns in the first six minutes to take a 14-0 lead. We almost went into halftime with no points but managed to score with about thrity seconds left. The score at half was 14-6 Highland Park. The score remained for wuite some time until midway through the fourth quarter our team faced a fourth and ten at the Highland Park thirty yard line. We in dramatic fashion as we scored on a long pass to make the score 14-12 Highland Park. It was all up to us getting the 2-point conversion. Sure enough, on a fake run rollout pass, we were able to get the points and tie the game at 14-14. No one would score for the rest of the game and with no overtime we ended in a tie. The quest for another conference title continues as we play Deerfield in two weeks. To see our enitre schegule click here.

PS: We lost a close one to Waukegan 24-20.