By Bobby Narang
York High School head football coach Mike Fitzgerald clearly understood the importance of a comeback victory.
Entering the final weeks of his third season at York, Fitzgerald is in the key stage of his program development period.
Recent history hasn’t been kind to the Dukes’ program. Despite being one of the oldest schools in the State, along with keeping detailed year-by-year record of most their sports on the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) website, York’s football program has struggled building a consistent winner over the last two decades.
Playing in a the rugged West Suburban Silver is a key factor, but the Dukes have changed coaches several times in the last two decades.
Fitzgerald started his tenure in 2018, with the aim of building the program into a consistent winner after not winning more than four games in a season for the past six years. Under Fitzgerald, the Dukes managed consecutive 4-5 records, which put a big emphasis on turning the corner in the abridged season this year.
Through the first four games, the Dukes owned a 2-2 record, by defeating Hinsdale South and notching a comeback victory over Willowbrook.
When the Dukes trailed Oak Park-River Forest 17-10 with two minutes left in the fourth quarter Friday, Fitzgerald turned to senior quarterback Max Assaad to lead the team to a 3-2 record.
Three weeks ago, Assaad was benched after throwing an interception in a loss to highly-ranked Hinsdale Central (No. 6 in the 8A State coaches poll) Assaad had a bounce-back performance with a stellar victory against Willowbrook.
Assaad added another chapter to his comeback story by leading the Dukes to a stunning 18-17 comeback victory over the Huskies Friday. Assaad completed the comeback with a 29-yard bullet-touchdown pass to Luke Malaga with 33.6 seconds remaining. The Dukes decided to attempt a potential game-winning two-point play. Assaad converted the two-point play with a pass to Malaga to defeat the Huskies, who fell to 3-2.
“Leading your team down the field to score on a game-winning drive with time running out is a surreal feeling,” Assaad said. “It’s every quarterback’s dream. There was never a doubt in my mind that we were going to win the game on that drive. We had been sharp with our passing game all night, so our confidence as an offense was very assuring.
“A huge moment on that drive was probably the play of the game, when Aaron Berman stretched the ball past the first-down marker on fourth down to extend the drive. Then when coach Fitz called the vertical route to Luke Malaga, I knew we were going to score.”
Assaad finished the game by completing 25 of 43 passes for 351 yards and two touchdowns. His 351 yards passing was the second-highest, single-game total in York program history.
“Max played really well,” Fitzgerald said. “The kids played really well. We had some opportunities slip by in closing that game out, and we gave (OPRF) some chances to take the lead. The kids battled back in a pressure situation. The kids had confidence in the final two minutes, and also on the two-point play. The kids wanted to win it. The defense held for the final 33 seconds. It was awesome to see our kids find a way to win.
“I’m just really proud of Max. He’s definitely battled through adversity this season and bounced back. I really challenged him to step up, knew we had to have more from him. In the last two weeks, he’s really played at a high level and played very confident and been poised. You never know how kids will respond to adversity. Max showed his true colors how he turned it on. He’s done a tremendous job the last two weeks. It’s awesome to see him lead us.”
Fitzgerald said the Dukes are motivated to notch the program’s first winning season since 2011. York will be host to Romeoville in a non-conference game Friday.
“I think every year we’ve seen growth,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s a process. A lot of steps to get where we need to go. We’ve made huge strides this season by beating high-caliber teams in Willowbrook and Oak Park-River Forest, and how we beat them, going down to the wire and winning in exciting fashion and not being rattled. That shows the growth of the program and leadership we have and how kids have bought in and worked hard. Everyone sees end results, but these kids worked hard in the mornings, in our virtual workouts, and kept working and believing.”