Surprising Addison Trail rolls past Leyden to open season 4-0

FRANKLIN PARK — Addison Trail’s remarkable turnaround continued on Friday night.

The Blazers, who won just two games last year, improved to 4-0 with a dominating 40-7 road win over Leyden in West Suburban Gold action.

“We felt like we didn’t play to the best of our ability last year,” Addison Trail senior quarterback Michael Rybarczyk said. “We worked so hard in the offseason to get to where we are now and we’re going to keep going, trying to get one more win every week.”

Rybarczyk was efficient on Friday night, completing 8-of-12 passes for 127 yards and three touchdowns. He also had a touchdown run of 35 yards.

With four straight wins to start the season, Addison Trail is hoping that people start to take notice.

“We hear about [not being ranked] but we’re not worried about rankings,” Rybarczyk said. “We’re worried about winning games. But it is motivation. We’ve always been the underdog and we’d like to try and get on the map.”

“It’s definitely a lot of motivation,” Junior tailback Malik Pierre-Louis said. “But it just feels good to keep winning all these games and we just want to keep it rolling.”

Pierre-Louis also had a big night for the Blazers, rushing for 161 yards and a 61-yard touchdown on just 12 carries.

“The line definitely came through,” Pierre-Louis said. “They showed up and if it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t have got those runs.”

Another player having a nice night for Addison Trail was senior wide receiver Jake Atiyeh. He rushed for 31 yards on five carries, including a seven-yard score. He also had two catches for 49 yards, including a 30-yard TD.

Fellow senior wideout Jaavion Bradley had a pair of touchdowns for the Blazers, on receptions of 41 and six yards.

— For Leyden, Friday night’s game wrapped up a rugged stretch of games where it faced Oak-Park-River Forest, Lyons and Addison Trail in consecutive weeks. Those three teams are a combined 11-1. “We kind of hit the buzz saw these last three games and we just talked about sticking together, getting better and fighting again next week,” Eagles coach Tom Cerasani said.

— There weren’t many bright spots as both the Leyden offense and defense struggled against the Blazers. Junior tailback David DeMarais did show flashes at times and finished with 50 yards rushing on 15 carries, including a five-yard touchdown run. “Yeah, these were all great teams, but we’re a great team and we need to get a win too,” DeMarais said. “We just have little miscommunications but they can be fixed with hard work in practice. We just need consistency and that’s coming.”