Giants’ two-point try just misses in one-point loss
No guts, no glory. Unfortunately, with guts, glory isn’t guaranteed.
Highland Park football attempted a two-point conversion to try and steal a home win against unbeaten Maine West. The gutsy try came up short, and the Warriors escaped with a 20-19 victory Friday, Sept. 22, in Des Plaines.
The Giants nearly came all the way back after facing a deficit of 14-3 in the third quarter and 20-10 in the fourth. Senior Sebastian Vybral booted a 32-yard field goal with four minutes to play, and senior quarterback David Finfer scored a touchdown on a 2-yard run with just under two minutes remaining to set up the conversion try.
Finfer tossed to running back Nikko Rosenbloom who was stopped just before piercing the goal line.
The loss drops Highland Park to 2-3 overall and 0-1 in the Central Suburban League North. .
Maine West scored first with a first-quarter touchdown, and the Giants answered with a 28-yard field goal by Vybral. The score stayed 7-3 until halftime.
The Warriors added two scoring runs in the second half, but each time the Giants responded. Finfer scored the first of his two scoring runs in the third quarter to make it a 14-10 ballgame. In the fourth, Vybral’s field goal and Finfer’s second scoring run closed the gap.
Finfer finished with 66 yards rushing and 163 passing. Sophomore Lucas Gordon led the receivers with 6 catches for 85 yards, while seniorJohnny Walker had 5 for 49.
Senior Tyler Gleyzer was active on both sides of the ball with 33 yards rushing and two tackles for loss as a linebacker. Senior Alex Knight tallied 8 tackles, while Eli Moore and Josh Pasternak had 7 apiece.
On their quest to get to a playoff-eligible five wins, Highland Park hosts Niles North (2-3, Sept. 29) and Niles West (4-1, Oct. 6) before traveling to Maine East (1-4, Oct. 13) and Vernon Hills (2-3, Oct. 20) to finish the regular season.
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Joe Coughlin
Joe Coughlin is a co-founder and the editor in chief of The Record. He leads investigative reporting and reports on anything else needed. Joe has been recognized for his investigative reporting and sports reporting, feature writing and photojournalism. Follow Joe on Twitter @joec2319
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