"We were outplayed. They were a better team than we were." These were Head Coach Kenny Olson's comments on the toss of Maine's Homecoming game. The Warriors were beaten by the Palatine Pirates by a score of 12‑0, last October 9. Palatine's touchdowns came in the second and fourth quarters. The closest the Warriors got to a score was in the second quarter when Maine moved the ball to Palatine's 7 yd. line, before a series of penalties forced them to kick. The first quarter seesawed back and forth and ended scoreless. Palatine's first touchdown came in the last ten seconds of the first half, when Ken Johnson of Palatine passed to John Blanchard for a 35 yard touchdown. The conversion attempt was no good, and the score at the half was 6‑0, in favor of Palatine. Palatine did not score in the third quarter nor did Maine. Palatine's second touchdown came in the fourth quarter. With 6:54 left in the game, Palatine had the ball on Maine's 17 yard line. The next play advanced the ball five yards, to the twelve. Two plays later, Palatine had advanced to Maine's 5 yard line. On the next play, John Ekberg (23) of Palatine went up the middle for four yards, putting the ball on Maine's 1. The next play was a pitchout to Ekberg, who ran the right end for the score. The conversion attempt was no good, and the game ended with Palatine the victors by a score of 12‑0.

Until the Homecoming game Maine had been undefeated. Both teams were coming into the game with no losses, and Coach Olson admitted that the game would be a tossup. "Palatine is a big, stong team. They have a good runner in number 23, John Ekberg. Their line is big. They beat Rockford‑Boylan by a score of 7‑0 and Niles North by a score of 21‑14. Niles West lost to them 22‑7. We will have to play the best ball we know how in order to beat them."

After the Homecoming disaster, Coach Olson had this to say, "We're going to go back to working on our fundamentals‑tackling and blocking. We didn't block well."

Maine West will play Conant (away), Forest View (home), and Wheeling (home), in that order. All these teams are in our conference. Coach Olson thinks we still have a chance to take the Conference championship. As for Palatine's chances, "They're a good team, but they can be beaten."

Tomorrow the Warriors travel to Prospect with hopes of defeating our rivals. The J.V. game begins at 12:00, while the Varsity team will kick‑off at 2:00.