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Wheaton North gets first win

It's been nearly 11 months since Wheaton North's football team experienced this feeling.

Now the plan is to make postgame celebrations a habit.

The Falcons no longer have to see "winless" attached to them after rallying for a 17-10 win over previously unbeaten Lake Park in Roselle.

"It feels great to finally get a 'W'," said Falcons running back Doug Michalak. "We played some tough competition that prepared us for this moment."

Trailing 10-7 heading to fourth quarter, Wheaton North (1-3) reclaimed the lead for good behind a Luke Anthony 5-yard touchdown pass to Jake Heggeland and Nick Cairo's 27-yard field goal.

Defensively, the Falcons kept Lake Park (3-1) off the scoreboard on six second-half possessions including two ended by turnover. Wheaton North senior linebacker Nick Singleton's sack and forced fumble on the first play of the fourth quarter set up the go-ahead scoring pass from Anthony.

After that Lake Park managed only 2 first downs before its final series ended on Ben Moore's interception in the game's final half minute.

"We just focused on the little mistakes we were making," Singleton said of the Falcons' 0-3 start. "We knew if we fixed those and came together as a team, we'd be able to come out here and get this huge win against a great team over there."

Wheaton North surged to a 7-0 first-quarter lead on a 37-yard pass from Anthony, who completed 18 of 28 passes for 232 yards, to J.P. Forcucci. In the second quarter Lake Park narrowed the gap to 7-3 on Cameron Van Aswegen's 36-yard field goal and took a 10-7 lead on Mike Perry's 29-yard scoring pass to Antonio Shenault, who leapt high in the air to make the grab.

The Falcons countered with a 70-yard drive in the final minutes of the first half, but a fumble through the end zone for a touchback thwarted the scoring chance and kept Lake Park's halftime lead at 10-7.

"I saw a lot a lot of mistakes tonight that I don't think we should have," said Lake Park coach Chris Roll, whose team didn't play last week due to a forfeit by Raby. "Wheaton North executed at big times. They had mistakes too, but we made some of our biggest mistakes when the game was on the line."

Lake Park's Kenny Jones rushed for 108 hard-fought yards on 27 carries while Perry threw for 120 yards. Michalak had 19 carries for 68 yards for the Falcons, who overcame three turnovers.

"We showed last week that we could hang with people," Wheaton North coach Joe Wardynski said of his team's 14-9 loss to Simeon. "The first two weeks were pretty one-sided, and then I felt like last week we showed that we'll play for four quarters. Tonight we had a good second half, and it was the kind of win we needed."

Follow Kevin on Twitter @kevin_schmit

Images: Wheaton North at Lake Park High School football

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