Vikes prepared to move on after loss

Fremd football coaches proposed it to junior Zenon Kolakowski last summer.

"Try being a wide receiver," was the pitch.

A quarterback and defensive back, Kolakowski was all for it. After all, it looked like senior Mike Tauchman would get the starting nod at QB.

The next best thing, he figured, was catching Tauchman passes.

"I loved it, right away," Kolakowski said. "Plus it got me on the field. I wanted to be on the field."

Next year's projected starting QB was off the field for the final 7:18 of Friday's 21-7 loss to host Bartlett in an Class 8A second-round playoff, and it was killing him.

His right knee hurt, too.

Kolakowski (2 catches, 92 yards) had suffered a dislocated knee while playing defense.

"I put my right foot down on the play, and then the kid hit me on my left shoulder," he recalled. "My body twisted; my leg was still planted."

Fremd's team doctor put the knee back in place before "Z" was placed on a bench along the sideline, not too far from all-MSL linebacker Jeff Bobek. A couple of plays earlier, Bobek had to come out after sustaining a lower-leg injury.

Bartlett, which led 14-0 at the half, was a healthy 11-0 after the win. The Hawks' defense limited Fremd (8-3) to five skimpy possessions in the first half.

The longest drive covered 22 yards; the shortest went minus-1 yard.

But Fremd's offense engineered sustained drives in the second half. The Vikings started the third quarter on their 35-yard line and reached Bartlett's 11 before turning the ball over on downs.

On the visitors' next series, Tauchman fired a 40-yard completion to Kolakowski, putting the ball on Bartlett's 10-yard line. Fremd was down only 14-7 after Tauchman's 7-yard TD toss to senior wideout Andrew Corso and Brett Opitz's PAT.

"We felt the momentum shift after the TD," Corso said after catching five passes for 64 yards. "We weren't worried before that because our team has been through every kind of situation possible this year; every kind of scenario.

"We never felt out of the game tonight."

Fremd turned the ball over on downs again early in the fourth quarter, at the Hawks' 35-yard line. Bartlett scored the night's final TD on its next possession.

"Our offense was sparking there in the second half, much better than it was in the first half," said Fremd coach Mike Donatucci, who guided the program to its 14th straight playoff appearance.

"We just couldn't finish (our drives)."

Corso, for one, had a hard time believing his team's season was over Saturday night.

"This is a terrible feeling," he said. "But that's life. My teammates, every day, were upbeat. Our coach knew how to joke around, but he also knew when it was time to get down to business.

"Fremd Vikings," Corso added, "don't go away. We play hard, always, until the last play ... full-throttle."

Corso's name surfaced in a post-game interview session, prompting Donatucci to shift gears from breaking down the loss to discussing bright futures.

"Corso and a lot of these kids are high-character kids," Donatucci said. "The loss tonight won't take that away from them; they will shine as adults, no matter what they do. I'd put money on it."