Schroeder injury puts damper on victory

Glenbrook South fullback Mike Hirsch rushed for 112 yards and two touchdowns in pacing the Titans' 28-13 win over New Trier in the 2008 regular-season finale. With fellow RB Mike Schroeder out of the lineup due to injury, Hirsch will be counted on to deliver again when GBS faces Schaumburg in the first round of the playoffs on Saturday.
(Allen Kaleta/for Pioneer Press)

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When you know you've already qualified for the IHSA state football playoffs, a football team has two goals in mind for the final weekend of the regular season.

No. 1: Try to improve your seed position.

No. 2: Don't get anyone hurt.

Glenbrook South achieved just one of those goals Saturday in a Central Suburban South Division matchup at New Trier.

The Titans (8-1) wrapped up a second place finish in the league with a 28-13 victory over New Trier in a game that was postponed from Friday night due to lightning and rain in the area.

But South also lost co-captain Mike Schroeder, the team's second leading rusher, with a broken leg in the final minute of the first half.

Mike Hirsch led the Titans with 23 carries for 112 yards and two touchdowns, while quarterback Ryan Hopkins passed for two more scores and linebacker Kyle Brubaker had two interceptions and a fumble recovery for the winners.

New Trier, which also had already nailed down a postseason berth, fell to 5-4 as quarterback Stu Brown completed 22-of-40 passes for 234 yards.

The visiting Titans showed their mental toughness by scoring their most important touchdown of the season to take a 20-13 halftime lead. They finished what Schroeder started after the 5-foot-7, 160-pound senior was injured on a 5-yard run around end and was removed by ambulance.

Following the lengthy delay, Hopkins completed a 13-yard pass to Trent Monckton. Six plays after that -- and with just 5.9 seconds showing on the clock -- Hopkins threw an 11-yard TD pass to Alex Langill for what turned out to be the game-winning score.

"After that injury took the focus away, I thought our kids did a good job of hanging in there," said South coach Mike Noll. "Ryan did a nice job of finishing off that drive.

"That injury is just a terrible thing to deal with. Mike is one of our captains and he's such a great kid. We couldn't tell our kids to ignore it because it's like that pink elephant in the room. We told them at halftime that he was out and that they should play hard and win it for Ryan in the second half.

"He's a leader in our school and he's just one of our best kids. We thought we could run outside on New Trier coming in, but without Mike we were pretty limited in the second half."

New Trier's two touchdowns came on 14-yard pass from Brown to senior John Jordan and a 1-yard plunge by Zach McGinnis. The Trevians owned the ball for most of the third quarter, but Brown tossed a pair of incompletions from the GBS 4 to turn the ball over on downs.

They did the same thing at the GBS 24 with 6:25 remaining, and then the Titans added an insurance score on a 19-yard burst by Hirsch.

"That's the second week in a row that's happened to us right before the half," noted New Trier coach Matt Irvin. "But I don't say that to degrade our defense. Our offense didn't control the ball enough.

"The game was still within reach after that, but we were too inconsistent and we got a little too one-dimensional on offense. A good team like Glenbrook South will make your weaknesses and inconsistent play more noticeable."