SCHAUMBURG -- Bartlett's perfect season is still alive, but barely.
A four-possession lead late in the third quarter almost wasn't enough for the top-seeded Hawks as No. 13 Schaumburg mounted a furious 28-point rally to tie the score with 1:26 remaining Saturday night.
With momentum squarely on the side of the Saxons, Bartlett found a way to avoid a monumental collapse in the game's final minute.
The Hawks answered Schaumburg's tying touchdown with a critical 45-yard pass from quarterback Josh Hasenberg to receiver Alex VanNess on a stop-and-go route, setting up a 25-yard field-goal attempt for kicker Dan Karys.
Karys delivered, sending the ball through the uprights with 7.4 seconds left to lift Bartlett to a thrilling 38-35 victory in Class 8A state quarterfinal action.
The Hawks (12-0) advance to the state semifinals where they'll host fellow unbeaten Maine South, which knocked off Barrington 42-0 on Saturday.
"It was definitely a relief," Karys said of his game-winning kick. "The offense did a great job to set us up and it made my job pretty easy."
Bartlett made everything look easy early on, steamrolling to a 28-0 halftime lead. The Hawks owned a commanding 284-80 advantage in total yards of offense through the first two quarters.
Despite an 85-yard return for a touchdown from Schaumburg's Diante Hackler on the opening kickoff of the second half, Bartlett still seemed to be in complete control late into the third quarter. But things started to unravel after a 15-yard touchdown catch by Hackler with 1:07 left in the third quarter cut Bartlett's lead to 35-14.
Schaumburg (7-5) recovered an on-side kick on the ensuing kickoff and quickly scored to make the score 35-21 with 11:19 remaining in the contest.
After the Hawks went three-and-out on their ensuing drive, the Saxons struck again when quarterback Anthony Iannotti scored on a 5-yard run to make the score 35-28 with 6:12 left.
Moments later, Schaumburg recovered yet another on-side kick, and after converting on a pair of fourth-down plays, the Saxons capped their wild comeback when Iannotti found Josh Spandiary for a 10-yard touchdown pass to tie the score at 35 with 1:26 left.
"That second half was kind of ugly there for quite a while," Bartlett coach Tom Meaney said. "The defense was out on the field way too long in the second half, and that can hurt you."
After watching from the sidelines for much of the second half, Bartlett's offense had one last chance to avoid overtime when it took over at its own 32-yard line 1:20 to play.
Facing second-and-nine from its 43-yard line four plays later, the Hawks took a timeout. The play they discussed during the break developed perfectly when VanNess faked out Schaumburg's cornerback and broke free down the right sideline for a 45-yard catch to give Bartlett a first down at the Schaumburg 12-yard line.
"We saw them bite on the slant the play before," VanNess said. "(The cornerback) came up and he bit on that play, and I happened to be wide open for the catch."
Added Hasenberg: "Starting the last drive we were definitely very confident. We had a little over a minute left and we do a lot of two-minute drill in practice, so we knew what we had to do."
After Bartlett's dominating display in the first half, the tables turned in the final two quarters as Schaumburg outgained Bartlett 240-92 in the second half.
Iannotti finished the game with 81 yards and a touchdown on the ground and 164 passing yards and three touchdowns through the air.
Hasenberg ran for three touchdowns while Bartlett seniors Fabian Libreri (17 carries, 114 yards, touchdown) and Corleon Richardson (15 carries, 84 yards) helped pace an effective ground attack for the Hawks.
"In the back of my mind late in the game was what were we going to do in overtime," Meaney said. "But luckily a couple plays worked down the stretch and we got into field goal range and we kicked it in."
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