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Streamwood dumps SCN to go 4-0

Alex Morrow said the Streamwood football team always came out believing it could win, even in recent seasons when wins were hard to come by.

Those victories are less rare this season.

The Sabres remained unbeaten on the season Friday night by dominating the second half for a 35-9 Upstate Eight River victory over St. Charles North at Millennium Field.

“We always expected to win. That’s what our coaches told us to expect,” Morrow said.

Streamwood (4-0, 2-0), which had lost nine straight games to the North Stars, trailed at halftime 9-7. The Sabres took the opening possession of the third quarter 77 yards on just six plays. After an encroachment penalty and four runs from Morrow, Dalton Lundeen hit Austin Mugnai for a 20-yard pass play down to the North 29-yard line. Lundeen then hit Deji Giwa for a touchdown and 14-9 lead with 8:56 remaining in the third quarter.

“Everyone just turned it up another notch,” Morrow said. “We started making plays in the second half. We made big plays and scored and go ahead.”

North (0-4, 0-1) was forced to punt on its first second-half possession. The Sabres then went 80 yards in eight plays, capped by a 26-yard touchdown pass from Lundeen to Blake Holder for a 21-7 lead with 4:49 left in the third.

On the North Stars’ next possession, Morrow intercepted Collin Peterson and returned it 40 yards for a touchdown to give Streamwood a 28-9 lead with 3:16 left in the third.

The defense scored again for the Sabres with 2:53 remaining in the fourth quarter as Mugnai picked off a Ryan Fischbach pass and returned it 21 yards for a score.

The North Stars had just 56 yards of offense in the second half.

“The defense was the key from the very beginning,” Sabres coach Cal Cummins said. “Our consistency on defense tonight was the difference. When the defense is playing well, it gives the offense a lot of confidence.”

STC North had the ball inside the Sabres’ 20 four times in the first half, but failed to score a touchdown. Michael Schroeder connected on field goals of 33, 30 and 28 yards. Peterson was stopped on a fourth-and-1 from the 18 on the other possession.

“We feel there were two, maybe three, touchdowns we left on the table on dropped passes,” North Stars coach Mark Gould said. “You can’t do that. You’ve got to finish. We just couldn’t finish.”

George Edlund had 48 yards on 13 carries for the North Stars. Peterson went 8-for-14 for 145 yards in the first half, but struggled in the second, completing just 1 of 5 passes for 9 years.

Morrow, who had a 1-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, gained 128 yards on 25 carries, 89 yards coming in the second half. Lundeen was 9 of 15 for 137 yards and 2 touchdowns. Holder and Mugnai each had 3 receptions.

“I don’t care what your past history is. Any time you come out and keep winning, it builds upon itself,” Cummins said. “The biggest thing at this point is making sure we keep our level heads and just continue to do the job and get better.”