Elgin holds off Tomcats' rally

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September 18, 2009

By GENE CHAMBERLAIN For The Sun-Times News Group

ELGIN -- Dan Muenzer saved the day for Elgin on Friday night with a handful of cloth and a face full of leather.

First he smothered a conversion kick try by Sergio Ruiz with 5:35 remaining to keep Elgin ahead by seven points, then he got the jersey of East Aurora's Bryan Robinson in his grasp as the Tomcats quarterback tried to cut upfield for the go-ahead 2-point conversion with 2:52 remaining, and a bevy of teammates closed out that tackle to preserve the Maroons' 20-19 Upstate Eight Conference win.

"I knew the quarterback would call his own number and they came out and I just had to make the play," Muenzer said of the 2-point conversion. "I knew my teammates were behind me. They were behind me the whole game."

East stormed back from a 20-0 deficit in the second half after Jordan Dean ran for 141 first-half yards and three touchdowns. Dean finished with 254 yards on 27 carries for Elgin (1-3, 1-1 UEC), but it almost wasn't enough as East's offense came alive in the second half with 129 of Robinson's 179 yards rushing.

Robinson had scored on runs of 1, 23 and 3 yards, the last one with 2:52 remaining to get East within 20-19. Then the Tomcats called timeout before the conversion attempt.

"Wins have been few and far between at East," coach Bill Bryant said. "I called the team over and we made a team decision. The coaches felt we wanted to go for two. I wanted to make sure all the kids were on board with it.

"We told the guys if you want to win the game, let's go for two. And we did."

Muenzer had blocked the conversion after the 23-yard TD run by Robinson with 5:35 left, coming off the edge.

"It was a big game to win," Elgin coach Dave Bierman said. "You've got to step up and respond when you get into situations like that and we finally did."

Elgin's Dean had a 63-yard scoring run on Elgin's first play from scrimmage, a 68-yard TD run on the Maroons' fifth play from scrimmage. He also scored on a 1-yard run with 2:23 left in the first half.

Elgin finished with 304 rushing yards.

Dean had a 25-yard TD run called back by penalty and Elgin had seven penalties for 67 yards at critical times in the second half.

East Aurora (0-4, 0-2) got 95 yards rushing from Tinard Thompson, and in the second half had 212 of its 278 rushing yards.

"We're going to get a lot better because of the second half," Bryant said. "We went in there and challenged the kids at halftime. We're said we're going to put 22 points on the board but we came up a couple points short. But we ran the ball effectively.

"We had them trying to guess where we were going."

ELGIN 20, EAST AURORA 19

EAST AURORA 0 0 7 12 -- 19
ELGIN 13 7 0 0 -- 20

E -- Jordan Dean 63 run (kick failed) 8:43, 1st
E -- Dean 68 run (Nikil Satish kick) :45, 1st
E -- Dean 1 run (Satish kick) 2:23, 2nd
EA -- Bryan Robinson 1 run (Sergio Ruiz kick) 7:48, 3rd
EA -- Robinson 23 run (kick blocked) 5:35, 4th
EA -- Robinson 3 run (run failed) 2:52, 4th

                               EA           E
First downs            18             16
Rushes-yard           43-278     39-304
Passing                  2-10-2      2-7-1
Passing yards          37            35
Total yards            315            339
Penalties-yards     7-72            7-67
Fumbles-lost         1-0              2-1
Punts                    3-34.3          1-28

Individual statistics
Rushing:

East Aurora: Robinson 26-179, Tinard Thompson 16-95, Morga 1-4.

Elgin: Dean 27-254, Craig McKenzie 8-52, Ryan Parks 3-2, Earl Holloway 1-

(minus)2.

Passing:

East Aurora: Robinson 2-10-2-37.

Elgin: Parks 2-7-1-35.

Receiving:

East Aurora: Tom Okapal 2-37.

Elgin: Michael Riggio 1-6, Jeremy Van Derpluym 1-29.