Maine South finally gets revenge on New Trier with convincing win

By: Luke Drase

Whether they admit it it not, Maine South’s game against New Trier was circled on their calendar since the start of the season.

After losing to the Trevians last season, which snapped a 77 game winning streak in the CSL South, Maine South came back with a vengeance, beating New Trier by a score of 45-7.

“We took back what we had for the last 16 years,” said Maine South Coach Dave Inserra.

“The boys have that, that was our number two football goal. They were focused on it from last year obviously, but it was a great week of preparation.”

Maine South didn’t start out as quickly as last weeks matchup, as they opened the game with a three and out, but the Hawks more than made up for it in their next possession.

The Hawks opened on the scoring on their very next drive, off a 40 yard touchdown pass from John O’Sullivan to Rory Hayes. That’s all it took for Maine South to really get the ball rolling.

The defense did an excellent job all night containing dynamic New Trier running back Brian Sitzer, and forcing five turnovers on the night, one fumble and four interceptions.

On the other side of the ball, it was the Hawks offensive line that did all of the grunt work, creating holes for Fotis Kokosioulis and giving more than enough time to O’Sullivan to find open receivers all night long.

O’Sullivan said: “Having guys like Came and Rory make things so much easier, I mean we’ve pretty much been playing together since eighth grade. Our line also made it easy, Thomas Yager, John Clearly step up big and make it easy to get passes off.”

A field goal and an incredible 22 yard touchdown from O’Sullivan to Cam Stacy gave Maine South a 18-0 lead heading into the half, but the Hawks weren’t done yet.

Out of the half, it was Kokosioulis’s turn to do some damage. Kokosioulis utilized his blazing speed to scamper to a 77 yard touchdown and after a Ryan Kilburg pick six, showed his power with a hard earned five yard touchdown run where he kept his feet moving.

The night may have had even more significance for the Northern Illinois commit as Coach Inserra thought that Kokosioulas either broke, or is really close to surpassing Matt Perez’s Maine South rushing yards record.

The game concluded with two yard touchdown run from Paul Sasso for Maine South and a two yard touchdown reception from New Trier’s Daniel Passeri for the 45-7 final.

And if beating New Trier wasn’t enough, the night was made even more special for Coach Inserra as his daughter came home from college to surprise her dad after the game.

There is still a long way to go for Maine South as many expect the Hawks to make a deep run in playoffs, but beating the Trevians, and clinching at least a share of the CSL South title is a pretty good place to start.

“We talk about it all the time, we’re our toughest opponent,” said Inserra

“We make it tough and challenging in practice to keep their focus each day to get that little bit better. Six weeks, thats our plan, six weeks to go. Each day we get a little bit better and that becomes a whole lot better by the end of the year.

Maine South will start that six week plan with the conclusion of their regular season next week at Niles West. New Trier, who is still looking to clinch a playoff bid, will finish up with Glenbrook South.