After winning two of their last three regular season games to qualify for the IHSA 8A playoffs, South lost to the Schaumburg Saxons 42-7 Oct. 26, putting an end to their season.
Heading into the final third of their season, the Titans saw the Waukegan Bulldogs, Niles West Wolves and Maine South Hawks as roadblocks in their path to qualify for the playoffs for the tenth consecutive season. First, South took on Waukegan Oct. 6.
On a cold Homecoming morning, senior Max Cohen led South’s versatile offense to a 45-7 victory against the Bulldogs. Although Noll referred to the game as one a lot of people expected South to win, he also acknowledged two future Division I players on the Bulldogs’ side making things tricky for the Titans. South followed up its biggest win of the season with a 35-25 win versus Niles West the following week. According to Noll, South played a great game for 40 minutes, and proceeded to hang on for the last eight.
While the Niles West victory rewarded South with a playoff bid, the Maine South match was a true test of the squad’s talent. Having never beaten the Hawks before, the Titans were hoping this year would be the year and opened the game up with a score. However, Maine South took over the second half, eventually winning 35-14. According to Noll, this was a difficult loss to swallow.
“We all expected to beat [Maine South],” Noll said. “I think our guys know if we played a better second half we would have had a better chance to beat them. In the immediate aftermath we were all a little frustrated because we all felt really good about the first half but not the second half.”
Fast forward to Oct. 26, when the Titans took on the Saxons in the first round of the playoffs. In a game that Noll described as “not one of our better performances,” South was defeated in a manner that Noll had not seen during the season.
“The Schaumburg game was much different from every other game; in every other game we played we were ahead at one time and it was competitive,” Noll said. “We were ahead deep into most of the games we’ve played. This game we were not in it from the very beginning and a number of things went wrong and we just did not play well in any phase of the game.”
For Noll, the loss was devastating, and brought the Titans to a final record of 5-5. This was the first time they were .500 or below since 2004. According to Noll, closing out games proved difficult for the team this year (see below). Also, losing four starting defenders and senior Grant Paterakos, the prospective starting tailback at the start of the season, to injuries, made things hard.
“A lot of games come down to a few plays, and you have to make those plays and win or not make those plays and not win,” Noll said. “There have been times this year where we have struggled in the fourth quarter.”
Cohen echoes his coach’s thoughts and targets a lack of second half consistency as the team’s main problem this season.
“[The second half has definitely been our Achilles heel], “ Cohen said. “During the halftime break we just needed to stay focused and make the necessary corrections for the second half.”
However, looking back, Cohen views the season as one defined by perseverance.
“We definitely got better as the season went on,” Cohen said. “We’ve overcome a lot of obstacles, and a lot of injuries.”
Noll echoes his praise for the team’s perseverance and reveres the amount of work the team put into this season from top to bottom.
“It was a smaller team than in the past, it was a less experienced team than in the past, and for whatever reason we have not done as good a job in the weight room, and I’ll take the blame for that,” Noll said. “So, we just did not have the physical presence out there that we normally have, but we competed really hard. [Positively,] from start to finish this team improved more than any team I’ve ever coached […] Making the playoffs is a pretty big accomplishment for this group.”
