From left, Stevenson’s Cameron Green, head coach Bill McNamara and Nick Dillon hoist the 2014 Class 8A football championship trophy.
Daily Herald file photo
Bill McNamara watched from the sideline, helpless but hopeful.
Throughout the 2014 football season, Stevenson High School’s head coach trusted his defense. Just as he trusted his offense and special teams.
But Homewood-Flossmoor lined up scant yards from the end zone and a game-winning touchdown. On the verge of a crushing loss, Stevenson’s first state championship was slipping away.
“Actually, it was very businesslike and calm,’” McNamara said. “We were all thinking the same thing. ‘This is what we’ve got to do to win the game. We’ve got to make a play and get a stop.’”
The faith paid off.
Stevenson forced a fumble and recovered it to wrap up a 31-25 victory in the Class 8A title game. In their 26th straight playoff appearance, the Patriots shed their image as the best program in the state without a championship.
At 14-0, it was the perfect cap to a perfectly wild season.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the IHSA football playoffs, the Daily Herald is looking back at some of the most memorable teams from our coverage area.
This chapter takes us to Lincolnshire, where 10 years ago a supremely talented Stevenson team navigated a brutal schedule to finally break through and win it all.
‘It was crazy’
In one of the most memorable title games in IHSA history, Stevenson was in command while building a 31-16 lead on Homewood-Flossmoor with less than three minutes to play.
But the Vikings got a safety and scored a touchdown within 26 seconds to narrow the gap to 31-25, and then they recovered an onside kick. The Vikings marched inside Stevenson’s 10-yard line in the final minute when the Patriots forced the title-clinching fumble, recovered by linebacker James Mahoney.
Phew.
“It was crazy. We felt like we were in control the whole game,” said Willie Bourbon, the team’s senior quarterback. “But we felt like we were prepared for everything. I think it just shows the resiliency of the group and the tight-knit nature we had.”
Despite being arguably the most talented team in the state, nothing came easy during the 2014 season.
In Week 2, Stevenson rallied from a 17-point halftime deficit to beat Homewood-Flossmoor in their first meeting. The Patriots played seven playoff teams, closing the regular season with a win over Libertyville, which advanced to the Class 7A semifinals.
No team in the state was more battle-tested than Stevenson heading into the playoffs.
Entering another postseason, the Patriots had the added motivation of heartbreak from the season before. They seemed on track for a state title run in 2013, but a last-second loss to Loyola in the 8A semifinals ended the run with a jolt.
“That’s one of the toughest losses I can ever remember experiencing,” said Nick Dillon, a senior two-way lineman for the Patriots. “Willie Bourbon and I were the last players on the field. I just remember how painful it was.
“We wanted to get back to the drawing board and get to work,” he said. “We came back swinging.”
‘Carrying that mission’
Dillon, Bourbon, receiver Cameron Green and other members of the team grew up playing together in the Buffalo Grove Bills youth program. They even traveled to Florida as eighth graders and won a national championship.
Dillon was promoted to varsity a few weeks into his freshman season, and others followed sophomore year. After the disappointment as juniors, and after watching those seniors leave without a title, the Patriots were on a mission heading into 2014.
“Ever since we played for the Bills, we had the goal of carrying that mission into high school,” Dillon said. “Going into senior season, it was really state championship expectations. That’s all we were trained for.”
The 2014 playoff run was one for the ages, featuring three games against top contenders for the 8A crown.
It started with the No. 1 Patriots struggling in a 21-17 win over Lyons Twp. on a cold and windy night. Next came Loyola in a second-round showdown. Stevenson won the rematch 24-21.
“When the brackets came out, that game was circled,” Bourbon said. “We really wanted to play our best game there. We were incredibly motivated. To get to play them again in the playoffs was huge.”
After hammering New Trier, the Patriots trailed unbeaten Glenbard West 3-0 in the fourth quarter of the semifinals.
Somehow, Bourbon and the Patriots engineered an 88-yard drive and scored in the final minute to take a 7-3 lead. Jimmy Marchese snared an interception in the end zone to preserve the program’s second trip to the final.
‘Off the board incredible’
Stevenson made history the following week in the title game thriller.
Four months later, a few members of the team also won a Class 4A basketball title led by Jalen Brunson, now on the New York Knicks. Green and Dillon, however, were unable to play because of injuries suffered during football season.
Three months after that, Bourbon and the baseball team advanced to the supersectional. Needless to say, it was an incredible class of talent for Stevenson.
Bourbon went on to play baseball at Northwestern, and Dillon played football at Eastern Michigan and Albany.
Green played at Northwestern, Jeremy Webb at Kansas and Jack Sorenson, a junior in 2014, at Miami of Ohio. Backup quarterback Aiden O’Connell, a sophomore at the time, plays for the Las Vegas Raiders.
From Jack Joseph to Jason Vravick, everyone played a part in earning that elusive championship football trophy.
Ten years later, the season-long roller-coaster ride remains unforgettable.
“Our players were off the board incredible, just off the charts,” McNamara said. “We knew 2014 was going to be a special year for us.”
Stevenson players react to recovering a fumble that helped seal a 31-25 victory over Homewood-Flossmoor in the 2014 Class 8A title game.
Daily Herald file photo
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
