Hoffman Estates scores 21 unanswered in fourth quarter to shock New Trier

It is not hyperbolic to call the result of New Trier football’s Week 3 matchup stunning. 

Backed by a 14-point lead with under 10 minutes to play, the Trevians’ looked poised to win their third straight game to open the season. But it was the home side that had other ideas about how the night should end. 

The Hoffman Estates Hawks rallied late to score 21 fourth-quarter points and hand New Trier a shocking 28-21 loss on Friday, Sept. 12. 

“I think we really expected to win the game tonight,” New Trier head coach Brian Doll said. “We think we’re the better team. … Some unfortunate, timely plays and calls really cost us tonight and put us in some bad situations.

“I feel like we should have won the game tonight and that’s pretty much where I’m at. We gave one away and that’s hard because I think we definitely should have won tonight.” 

How it happened

Hoffman Estates’ comeback started on the Hawks’ first drive of the fourth quarter. 

After a big passing play set them up inside New Trier territory, the Hawks took advantage of a pair of personal foul penalties against the Trevians. Just one play after the second penalty, Hawks quarterback Austin Lezniak fired a 12-yard touchdown pass to bring the game back within one score at 21-14. 

The Trevians then fumbled on the first play on their ensuing drive, a mistake that proved to be especially costly as the Hawks took over and scored only four plays later. 

On a fourth-and-7 play, Lezniak connected with the Hawks’ star wide receiver Torey Baskin for a 35-yard touchdown that tied the game with eight minutes to go. 

New Trier’s offense could not find the answer it needed to silence Hoffman’s momentum as the Trevs went three-and-out on the next series. 

The Hawks then put the finishing touches on their remarkable comeback with a 59-yard game-winning drive that was finished off on a 1-yard touchdown run with just under 40 seconds to play. 

New Trier put itself in position for a miracle after getting the ball to Hoffman’s 36-yard line but the Trevians’ last-ditch effort came up short. 

Penalties played a particularly crucial role in swinging the game late as well. New Trier was penalized four times in the fourth quarter all within a matter of less than three minutes of game play. 

“I think every single call went against us in the fourth quarter to be honest with you, which was really hard to swallow,” Doll said. “We shot ourselves in the foot with a couple calls too that we could have avoided, but it was just mistakes. It was internal mistakes. 

“I don’t think we should have lost the game tonight. …  And it felt like we could have put it out of reach in the second half when it was 21-7 and we had the ball, but we just made some errors and we have to do better than we did tonight as a team and as a group.” 

New Trier dominated play in the first half thanks in large part to a pair of critical fourth-down scores. 

The Trevs opened the scoring on their second drive of the game when quarterback Jackie Ryder fired a 20-yard touchdown pass to Luke Mastros on fourth and 5. 

New Trier had one more timely conversion later in the second quarter when it extended its lead.

Ryder tossed his second 20-yard touchdown of the game, this time to Emmett Koshkarian. A successful two-point conversion, another Ryder-Koshkarian connection, gave the Trevs a 14-0 advantage. 

Hoffman scored on its first drive of the second half to cut the deficit to seven when Lezniak and Baskin linked up for their first of two touchdowns on the evening. 

New Trier answered right away though with an 11-play, 64-yard drive that was capped off with a 1-yard touchdown run by Ryder. But the Trevs could not find the end zone the rest of the way. 

“I think we just internally made some mistakes that kind of cost us in key moments,” Doll said. “We were not able to do some of the things in the second half that we were hoping to do.” 

The Trevians’ Week 3 loss once again left the team searching for answers on how to solve their years-long slump against Metro Suburban League Conference opponents. New Trier has now dropped five straight games against MSL teams and seven of their last nine against the conference dating back to 2021. 

The Trevs will return home and get a chance to reverse those struggles next Friday night, Sept. 19 — but it will be far from an easy task as they’ll square off with one of the area’s top-ranked teams, the undefeated Fremd Vikings. 

The Vikings, led by Northwestern University commit Johnny O’Brien, one of the state’s best quarterbacks, have outscored their opponents by a staggering 124-16 margin thus far this season. 

“We’ll have to put our heads down and go to work and put together a plan to help us,” Doll said of stopping Fremd’s powerful offense.

“It’ll be important for us to get back on track next week,” he later added, saying “we know we have a big challenge in front of us.”

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