Rough start continues for Highland Park

The home cooking wasn’t any more satisfying for Highland Park football.

Following a disappointing two weeks on the road, the Giants returned to their home turf of Wolters Field Friday to a similar result. Buffalo Grove blanked Highland Park, 22-0, on Sept. 20.

The loss pushed the Giants to an 0-4 start to the 2024 season. In two of the losses, Highland Park has been shut out.

“When you get shut out, you got to find a way to get the offense going,” Giants coach Anthony Kopp said. “That’s going to be a big thing going forward into next week, looking at how we can change some stuff up, looking at how we can get some first downs. We need first downs and need to finish our drives — we also can’t have turnovers.”

Highland Park committed five turnovers on the day, helping the Bison control the game action.

Buffalo Grove scored in each of the four quarters, including one touchdown apiece in the first, second and fourth.

For Highland Park, Shamar Wilson caught four passes and Lucas Gordon three. Eli Moore had 22 yards rushing and added a team-high 8 tackles. Gordon added 7 tackles, and Andrew Nikolakakis recorded an interception.

The offense has been all but shut down since the team’s first game, a 30-27 loss to Leyden, when Gordon had a breakout performance with 240 yards receiving and three scores.

Since, teams have locked in on Gordon, a strategy that has stunted the Giants offense, which lost a plethora of multi-year 2023 starters to graduation.

“We need our other playmakers to step up and go ahead and make plays for us,” he said.

Like the Giants, the Bison came into Friday’s contest 0-3. Kopp and company knew it was a game that provided an opportunity.

“This was a game we knew would be a 50-50 game,” he said. “Either team could win this, both teams 0-3, both teams needing a win desperately. We knew it would be one of those games, a tight game, getting ready to go back and forth. We both needed this game and they came out here and did a great job, ran the ball well and stopped us.”

The Giants — who also have losses to Leyden, Deerfield and Fremd — will hope for better fortune during their conference slate, which begins next Friday, Sept. 27, with a trip to reigning league champ Maine West (3-1). They are on the road twice more — Niles North on Oct. 4 and Niles West on Oct. 10 — before returning home to play Maine East on Oct. 18.

Kopp said his team’s top priority is to compete for a league title. That opportunity still lies ahead.

“Conference has always been our first goal,” he said. “We put it in a way where we see the season in phases. That first phase is nonconference; it didn’t go our way, but the (Central Suburban League) North championship is always our first goal and as far as we are considered, going into it we are 0-0 and we have to win conference.”

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