Ridgewood's Mark Maceck (left) and Matt Bond (center) celebrate a touchdown by teammate Marty Mucino against Immaculate Conception in season-opening football action.
(Brian Valentin/Staff Photographer)

"Sophomore year, they didn't want to put too much pressure on me, and last year I tore my knee up and only played on the offensive line," Spenk said. "This is my first year playing both, and I really enjoy being out there the whole game. I'm just going to go out there and play hard every day."

The 6-foot, 230-pound right tackle and defensive end demonstrated his talents on both sides of the ball Friday, but it wasn't enough to lead the Rebels to a victory in their season-opener.

Immaculate Conception pulled away for a 28-7 win in Norridge.

The season couldn't have gotten off to a better start for the Rebels. Senior running back Greg Coulouris gained 52 yards on the first play from scrimmage to help set up an 18-yard touchdown run by Marty Mucino, giving Ridgewood a 7-0 lead just 1 minute, 8 seconds into the contest.

Ridgewood rushed for 152 yards in the first half, but still found themselves down 13-7 at the break.

The Rebels had a golden opportunity to take the lead in the second quarter, but lost a fumble at the goal line on a 3rd-and-1 play at the 1-yard line.

"I think we got in down there," said Ridgewood coach Chris Zack. "I think it was a bad fumble call when our quarterback (Sean Morris) reached the ball over (the goal line). I'm not going to blame refs because we had many, many opportunities."

Neither team scored in the third quarter, and IC added a pair of touchdown runs in the fourth to seal the victory.

Ridgewood, which was playing without four starters -- including starting quarterback Joe Jacobsen -- rushed for 221 yards behind offensive lineman Spenk, Steve Schmidt, Joe Klabacha, Tom Coyle and Ben Femminella.

Coulouris finished the game with 118 yards on 11 carries, while Kern Christian added 62 yards on 13 attempts.

Adding to the disappointment of losing was a serious injury to Femminella, who went down in agonizing pain at the end of a play in the fourth quarter.

"They think it might be a broken elbow," Zack said. "It's tough because he's a senior and this is the first year he's ever played football. He worked so hard in the offseason and ended up being the starting right guard for us. We ran behind him and (Spenk) 75 percent of the time in the first half. We're losing a big player. Hopefully, the X-rays show it's not as bad, but we're going to have to plan on looking in a different direction."

Spenk, who has had his share of injuries to deal with, felt for his teammate.

"He was doing a heck of a job," Spenk said. "We play as a fist (as five offensive linemen) and we lost a finger. It's hard seeing a teammate go down like that."

Zack knows there is plenty to work on, but is encouraged by what he saw from his team Friday night.

"I think our kids learned a lot," said Zack, whose team will host Argo in Week 2. "We have a lot of new starters on varsity, so the kids got some experience. There were a lot of good things done out there, and hopefully we can grow from it and be ready to rock and roll next (game)."

Article written by Ken Ryan on Monday, August 30, 2010 for the Pioneer Press Norridge and Harwood Heights News and online at http://www.pioneerlocal.com/norridge/sports/highschools/2655004,norridge-ridfbl-083010-s1.article.