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HOFFMAN ESTATES – The 62nd season of Mid-Suburban League football began as a pair of teams from opposite divisions completed their home-and-home two-year series.
Hoffman Estates hosted Buffalo Grove Friday night. These same two squads opened last season with an overtime thriller that saw the host Bison prevail on a successful two-point conversion.
“The reason why we schedule BG is because of the respect we have for them,” Hoffman’s seventh-year coach Tim Heyse said after his team’s 35-24 win at Garber Stadium Friday night over the visiting Bison.
“Coach (Jeff) Vlk does an unbelievable job with those kids over there. We know they’re very well-coached and they’re going to be flying around and be very physical.”
It was after a very physical first 24 minutes of play that Hoffman (1-0) used a 16-play, 87-yard scoring drive to begin a comeback from a 17-14 halftime deficit as senior QB Nate Cleveland scored on a 3-yard TD run to give the Hawks the lead for keeps at 21-17 with 86 seconds left in the third.
Cleveland, a Minnesota commit, combined for 144 yards of total offense including...
A 55-yard second-quarter bomb to junior Torey Baskin tied the contest at 14 with 6:26 left in the second period.
A 17-yard TD reception from junior Austin Lesniak that opened the lead up to 28-17 just 14 ticks into the fourth which came just four plays after a Baskin pick off of a Dylan Spedale late in the third.
A second rushing TD from 4 yards out with 4:12 left in the game accounting for the final points for the home team as Hoffman starts their season at 1-0 for the first time since 2019.
“At halftime me and rest of the told everybody we’re fine. We’ve been in situations like this (in the past). We’ve got a bunch of good leaders on the team and we know we can come back from this. It feels great (because) we haven’t won our week one game in a while.”
Junior TB Landon Ford (17 carries, 122 yards) got the Hawks on the board with 1:15 left in the first on a 27-yard scoring jaunt that capped off a 4-play, 73-yard drive. Spedale, a senior transfer from Fremd, went 15-24 for 162 yards in his Bison debut throwing for a pair of TD’s. The first coming when he found sophomore Matthew Kaput for an 8-yard TD toss in the back of the end zone in the opening stanza and a 23-yard TD pass to Brayden Wong with 28 seconds left in the game.
Kaput also added a 12-yard TD jaunt in the second followed by Luiz Falcao’s 22-yard field goal as time expired in the first half giving the Bison a 3-point edge heading into the locker rooms.
“I told our kids (that) I was proud of their fight but we’ve got to execute better is really the biggest thing,” Vlk said of his team’s effort.
“I thought Dylan played great in his first game as a Bison. We didn’t know what we had until we saw him in a game (situation). I thought he was really impressive. To come out against a team like Hoffman and against a guy like Nate Cleveland we knew that coming in he’s going to be the best player in the field and our goal was to try and shut him down, but you can only do so much with a guy that talented.”
https://www.dailyherald.com/20240830/prep-football/hoffman-handles-buffalo-grove/