Stevenson hands Mundelein its first loss of the year in shutout

MUNDELEIN – Visiting Stevenson took advantage of some key turnovers to turn the tide against host Mundelein Friday night in North Suburban Conference football play.

The Patriots built a 20-0 halftime lead over the Mustangs before posting a 36-0 NSC victory to improve to 3-1 overall and 1-1 in the conference.

Mundelein (3-1, 1-1) fell behind on the last play of the first quarter when Stevenson's Frank Costabile (60 yards on 11 carries) scored on a 15-yard TD run as he got away from a big pack of defenders before Caden An's extra point made the score 7-0.

Stevenson's John Concialdi recovered an errant pitch at the Mundelein 8-yard line before teammate Christopher Thorndyke (52 yards on 13 rushes) scored on a 7-yard TD run for a 14-0 lead with 4:54 left in the second quarter.

Then Griffin Suren intercepted a pass by Logan Young (11 for 20, 55 yards) to boost the lead to 20-0 as Maddux Hermestroff blocked the extra point.

"I think our defense was outstanding tonight, they just played lights out, and I was proud of our kids," said Stevenson coach Brent Becker. "We knew we wanted to establish the run, the defense was playing great, and that was kind of the game plan."

Mundelein had little running room all game long as a 31-yard field goal by An boosted the lead to 23-0 late in the third quarter.

Then quarterback Aidan Crawley (9 for 17, 164 yards) lofted a high touchdown pass to Thomas Simmons for a 29-0 lead with a minute left in the third quarter.

Crawley went over the top of the defense again with 3:30k to play as he connected with Jack Staub for a 57-yard touchdown play to account for the final score with 3:30 remaining in the fourth quarter.

"We had a lot of good moments, but we have a lot of things to clean up with a lot of penalties tonight," said Crawley. "Jack Staub is filling the role really nicely after some guys got hurt, and it's awesome to incorporate everyone."

Mundelein's Jake Junia was held to 23 yards on 13 carries while teammate Anthony Ramirez had 30 yards on 11 attempts in the second half.

"They're a really good football team, they're defensive line was really tough and we knew that coming in," said Mundelein coach Johnny Cowhey. "It was not the start we wanted having two turnovers deep in our territory, and we've just got to do a better job of making fewer mistakes for the whole game."

The Mustangs marched down to the Stevenson 30-yard line late in the opening quarter, but Young was sacked on fourth down ending a promising potential scoring drive.

Stevenson plays Waukegan next week while Mundelein has a huge challenge when it hosts state-ranked Libertyville in its homecoming game.