Receivers help lead Maine South past Glenbrook North

PARK RIDGE — The Maine South football team’s win on Friday night started out with a good punt return. Senior Dan Ellsworth caught the ball two minutes into the game and took off for a 55-yard touchdown. The catches just kept coming.

Maine South’s receivers helped the Hawks cruise to a 40-0 win over Glenbrook North. The Hawks scored four of their six touchdowns in the first half, including three in the first quarter.

Senior Tommy Bazarek followed Ellsworth’s initial punt return with a touchdown at the two-minute warning. Then Hawks junior Dylan Burdelik recovered a Spartans fumble to set up a touchdown run by Justin Fahey before the quarter ended.

“Getting the ball early with great field position gave us some opportunities to get some points on the board and keep the momentum on our side,” said Hawks quarterback Brian Collis, who threw two touchdowns, including a 58-yard pass to Jonathan Arenas in the middle of the second quarter.

He added: “It’s great to have all the guys out there catching the balls. I trust all our receivers that they’re going to be able to run the route and catch the ball. I love those guys to death.”

The Hawks (3-0) led 27-0 coming out of the locker room at halftime, and Collis came out passing. Completions to Jarrett Gustafson and George Sargeant set up senior running back Kevin Thomas to score the final two touchdowns.

“We didn’t run the ball quite well enough but I really liked the way our receivers covered that,” Maine South coach David Inserra said. “They took some shots, jumped out and made some plays.”

Glenbrook North’s Matt Brown caught an interception at the goal line that stopped a Maine South drive in the third quarter, but the Hawks’ defense immediately stepped up to stop the drive.

“I thought they played hard and that’s the main thing,” Inserra said “We play as hard as we can on every play — you make some mistakes but if you’re going hard you can overcome those mistakes.”

Glenbrook North

• Glenbrook North senior David Burnside made an interception in the second quarter.