Niles North’s varsity football team may not have triumphed on Saturday in their defeat by the Niles West Wolves (30-21) after holding the traveling trophy for five years, but they played a great game nonetheless. ““It’s a very special rivalry, but it’s not about me,” Egofske said. “It’s about everyone on the team that played their hearts out.” This seemed to be the general consensus among Viking fans, as an opportunity came with the loss to step into West’s shoes and win back the trophy.
“Losing to West feels horrible because was a rivalry game, but it was non-conference game and it will help us get all the mistakes out of our systems now,” quarterback and co-captain Billy Voitik said. “Our goal is to win conference and make the playoffs, and that is still possible.”
The game started out a bit shaky as quarterback Voitik struggled to grab the ball off the snap, and couldn’t complete plays there after the beginning of the first quarter. But Voitik completed a pass to co-captain Danny Fricano, who was stopped by a West lineman. But the next pass to Fricano was complete and got North a touchdown. Voitik also completed a 20+-yard pass to Nick Lakhani to push the Wolves back behind the 15-yard line. Lakhani also ran the ball to the 21-yard line for the second down in the second quarter. Edi Zanfir made an attempt at a pass from Voitik, but it was incomplete.
New varsity special teams kicker Amir Grabic kicked off the ball in the first quarter; a return specialist from West caught the ball, but was tackled mid-catch giving the ref reason to throw a flag, claiming catch interference. Grabic also made a big play in the third quarter, kicking off into the end zone starting off the Wolves at their 20-yard line.
Junior J.J. Myles returned a punt to West’s five-yard line in the first quarter — impressive, as this is his first year on varsity.
The Vikings worked hard Saturday, and even though they lost they made a big impact on the opposing team by having players like Fricano on their squad. Fricano led the team with sacks to the opposition, making 3+ in the first half. Besides being a great defensive player, Fricano made two touch downs. The first of the two came on a pass completion on a ball tossed by Voitik, as mentioned before, and the second was by performing a “scoop and score,” in which a player intercepts the ball from the other team and scores. Fricano picked the kick off at the 3-yard line and ran it in to the end zone to bring the Vikings to 20 points.
Varsity was not the only team to play, as the freshman B and sophomore teams played earlier. Sophomores lost in the end when West snuck up from behind and scored a touchdown, and a field goal to take the game 27-20. Freshman B annihilated West, winning 20-0.
“We have to put West behind us, because there is lots more ahead. We are looking forward to playing Waukegan this week,” Voitik said.
The traveling trophy may no longer be ours, but there’s always next year; and enough time for the case, accidentally broken by a North administrator, to be fixed.
Make sure to stop by Chuck Pos stadium to check out this year’s squad, and on a final note: Go Vikings!
