Saturday, Aug. 31 was an “arm killer” of a football game at Niles West in the varsity game that was rescheduled from the day before (due to severe weather conditions).
Cheerleaders know what that means: for every touchdown the Wolves scored, the cheerleaders had to match their point total in push ups. West beat the Ridgewood Rebels 56-35 in a high -scoring affair. For the cheerleaders, that meant they had to fork over 252 push ups!
Receiving the opening kickoff, the Wolves wasted no time on their first drawn-up play. Junior quarterback Tommy Galanopoulos connected with fellow junior Quran Spillman, who made an explosive 55 -yard attack to the opposing 21 yard line. Galanopoulos finished the job by hitting junior Jeremy Pignato in the end zone for the first touchdown of the game not even two minutes in. Senior Filip Dominski capitalized on the extra point opportunity, giving the Wolves an early 7-0 lead. He was a perfect seven of seven on field goal attempts in the game.
Early on, the Wolves matched their offensive intensity on the defensive end as junior Adam Pignato, senior Denis Gargovic, senior Isaac Reinemann and senior Ricardo Johnson gave the opposing quarterback no breathing room. Off of intense pressure by junior Tahir Meeks, Ridgewood’s quarterback made an errant lob that was intercepted by senior Andrew Mihulet. Meeks was injured on the play with what he called a “hip flexor injury.” He would return.
Galanopoulos showed his excellent ability to avoid what seems like an inevitable sack and, in turn, make the right pass at the right time throughout the entire game. With two minutes and 11 seconds left in the first, he did just that as he found senior Nick Johnson for another Wolves touchdown to give the Wolves a 14-0 lead once Dominski kicked the extra point.
“When you’ve got really good guys around you picking each other up like that, you just keep playing and scoring more touchdowns. The other team doesn’t want anything to do with it.” Galanopoulos on the importance of team play.
West started the second quarter right where they left off, as Galanopoulos completed a pass to senior Garrett Iverson, who made a triumphant 53-yard strike to the end zone. The momentum would soon shift, however.
After the Wolves smothered their opponents in treacherous 4th and goal position at their own five yard line, they got the ball back. West fumbled the ball in the end zone, however, and Ridgewood recovered it for a touchdown with 6:52 to go in the second. They then successfully recovered an onside kick, further flustering the Wolves, and marched down to the end zone for their second touchdown of the game with 2:58 left in the half.
Simmering with the heat of momentum in their favor, Ridgewood intercepted a Niles West pass attempt and went deep for their third touchdown of the quarter — tying the game 21-21 — with just 49.3 seconds to go in the half. The Wolves disappointment in their sloppy 2nd quarter was visible in their body language, and they very well may have lost control of the game had it not been for the final play of the half.
Galanopoulos hit Mihulet with a deep pass, but he was surrounded and sure to be tackled if he made a run for the end zone. So, surveying the scene around him, he lateraled the ball to Spillman, who escaped defenders and sprinted into the end zone as the first half buzzer sounded.
“We never really went over it in great detail. But the ball was coming right at me so I jumped up and caught it. I was about to go down but I saw Quran right by the sideline. Coach talks about football IQ and I think that’s honestly what got me there,” Mihulet said about the play.
Fresh off of a locker room pep talk and Mihulet and Spillman’s incredible collaboration, the Wolves came out with renewed confidence in the second half. West’s coaching staff screamed “sense of urgency!” from the sidelines. Ridgewood gained very little yardage. Galanopoulos then stepped in and hit Iverson for another early touchdown — giving the wolves a 35-21 lead — with 10:02 to remain.
On the defensive end, the Wolves provided the sense of urgency their coaches demanded they bring. Seniors Johnson and Philippe Delma each provided a timely sack on the defensive end and Reinemann, thanks to his defensive intensity, recovered a Ridgewood fumble. Galanopoulos brought home two more touchdowns — one that he ran in by himself and one that he threw to Mihulet — to give the Wolves a comfortable 49-21 lead as they headed into the final quarter of the game.
After Galanopoulos opened the quarter with a deep 55-yard run, he was rewarded with rest for the remainder of the game. Mihulet took over the quarterback position and ran a touchdown from 56 yards out. Though Ridgewood scored two touchdowns in the final three minutes of the game, it was too little to late.
At least partially responsible for a whopping six of his team’s eight touchdowns, Galanopoulos said the Wolves had a lot to prove in their first game.
“[I ] Definitely [wanted to] make a statement the first game. We’ve got a bunch of different guys coming back, so it’s huge to show all of those guys coming up, making plays, and get a W,” he said.
Despite his team’s 21-point margin of victory, Galanopoulos still had mixed feelings about the game.
“The first half was good but then it turned sloppy,” he said. “But we finished strong, kept our heads up and fought through it. It’s really tough with me making a stupid play, throwing an interception. But when you’ve got really good guys around you picking each other up like that, you just keep playing and scoring more touchdowns. The other team doesn’t want anything to do with it.”
The Wolves will put in the time at practice to make sure their next game is even better than this one. Their next test will come in the “Skokie Skirmish” against their rival, Niles North on Saturday, Sep.7 at 1 pm (at Niles North).
