What a difference a couple of weeks can make. Back on December 1st, the Conant Cougars dropped a 45-31 decision to the Palatine Pirates in their first MSL West conference game of the season to sit at 2-3. Since then, the squad has reeled off four consecutive wins with the latest one coming Friday night as the Cougars earned a tough road win over the Fremd Vikings, 48-41. "I wasn't here last year, but I know these guys took some tough losses (to Fremd) and I know the guys who

It didn't look pretty early on for the Schaumburg Saxons. For nearly three quarters Friday night against the Conant Cougars, the Saxons looked like a shell of a team that had gone toe-to-toe with, and had held double-digit leads against, perennial MSL West powers Hoffman Estates and Palatine the past two weeks. But somehow, some way, the resilient squad erased a late two-touchdown deficit to walk away with a 24-21 overtime victory in Hoffman Estates, ruining the Cougars' home

In last year's meeting between Conant and Bartlett, the teams combined to score a total of six points as the Bears edged the Cougars, 6-0, while holding the Conant offense to zero yards through the air. The narrow defeat would prove to be the closest the Cougars would come to tasting a victory all season long as it suffered the school's first winless season (0-9) since 1975, averaging an anemic 7.7 points per game on offense. On a positive note, the team's 1976 edition reboun