Maroons remain winless
AURORA -- On a night when the presidential candidates were debating, Elgin coach Dave Bierman found himself making a concession speech.
Even if the Maroons were realistically eliminated from the playoffs long ago, they were also mathematically bounced Friday with a 46-21 Upstate Eight Conference loss to Waubonsie Valley.
Bierman was already working on lifting the winless Maroons' morale in the postgame huddle.
"I basically told them that obviously postseason is gone," he said. "That's always one of your goals, but now you're in the spoiler mode.
"We're still looking for our first victory. We still have a lot of things to play for. We have Bartlett coming up. The Town Jug coming up, homecoming. There' still some goals and things to fight for, other than knocking someone else out of the playoffs."
On Friday, the Maroons (0-5, 0-2 UEC) followed a script that's become too familiar for them.
Trailing by a touchdown late in the first quarter, Elgin rallied to tie the game at 7. An 80-yard Maroons march was capped by a 17-yard TD pass from Tom Roth to Jamal Cook with 10:30 before halftime. Roth booted the extra point.
But Waubonsie (2-3, 2-1) piled on the points from there. After gaining only 113 rushing yards through their first four games, the Warriors picked up 125 in the first half of Friday's game.
"We were really just trying to take what the defense was giving us," Waubonsie coach Paul Murphy said. "If we saw eight men in the box, we passed. If we saw six in the box we ran."
A pair of TDs and a 43-yard field goal by Waubonsie's Mitch Ewald gave the Warriors a 24-7 halftime lead.
Elgin would never really make it a contest as Waubonsie led 40-7 at one point late in the third quarter.
Roth hit Cook for an 82-yard touchdown in the waning seconds of the third quarter and found him again on an 8-yard TD midway through the fourth to make it 41-21.
The shorter score was made possible when Joe Wade picked off a pass from Waubonsie's backup quarterback on the Elgin 10-yard line and ran it all the way back to the Warriors' 10.
One of the Maroons' best playmaking units -- their kick return -- was rendered useless by Ewald. Of his eight kickoffs, six were touchbacks and the two that were returned didn't make it outside the Maroons' 20-yard line.
"Kick returns a lot of times can get you field position and maybe a score," Bierman said, "but when you're starting at your own 20 all night, it makes for a long field. That's where you need a couple first downs. Regardless of if you score or not, you need to try to get field position the other way. It's hard to overcome that."
Roth finished the night with 196 yards on 12-of-28 passing without throwing an interception.
Cook hauled in five passes 118 yards and the three scores.
