Woodstock North topples Hampshire

The up and down season at Hampshire continues. And so too does the injury bug.

Already without starting quarterback Nick Mohlman, the Whip-Purs lost starting running back Devontae Johnson to a knee injury in the second quarter of a 21-9 Fox Valley Conference Fox Division loss to Woodstock North Friday night in Hampshire. But their unfortunate luck doesn't end there.

Woodstock North's triple option offense tallied 296 yards on the ground between 6 different rushers and edged the Whips offensively 308-275, and when it seemed Hampshire (3-3, 1-2) found a way out of its 11-point hole early in the fourth quarter on Mason Fleury's 12-yard touchdown run that cut North's lead to 14-9, a costly false start and subsequent pass picked off by Jordan Plummer at the North 40 with 5:22 on Hampshire's next possession concluded matters for a squad that could've created some mayhem in the Fox standings but that's now sort of becoming a MASH unit.

"What really hurt was losing Devontae right before halftime and he couldn't go in the second half," Whip-Purs coach Mike Brasile said. "We're beat up. We're injured. We're without our starting quarterback and now without our starting running back. One of our receivers is banged up. Football is a sport where you've got to be healthy. Timing of injuries is everything and unfortunately we've had some pretty bad injuries here, recently."

North (3-3, 3-0) remains in sole possession of first place in the Fox and with 3 games left injuries might put the Whips' playoff hopes in jeopardy. But the play that really broke Hampshire's back Friday was a third down play action pass into the end zone with 2:19 to go from the Hampshire 12-yard line. Thunder quarterback Jimmy Krenger found receiver Sean Lagerstrom wide open in the right corner of the end zone to make it 21-9 and poetically it was North's only pass of the game. A stop there could have resulted in a field goal and possibly another shot to prolong the game for Hampshire, which had better success moving the ball up the field in the second half.

"That one was a stinger because that was the one play we went over all week," Fleury said. "We thought they were going to hit us early with it and they surprised us and shocked us at the end. "

Krenger finished with 19 carries for 75 yards, including 2 touchdown runs of 1 and 7 yards each in the first half. Plummer rushed 13 times for 88 yards and while Jeremy Haymond piled up 72 yards on 6 carries. Travis Busch also ran 13 times for 49 yards.

Hampshire's Matt Bridges started in place for Mohlman and was effective, completing 13 of 25 passes for 150 yards, but with that came 2 interceptions, including 1 on Hampshire's final drive. Johnson had 8 carries for 15 yards until he came out and Fleury led the way with 62 yards on 14 carries to go with 4 catches for 48 yards. Jared Lund completed 1 pass for 12 yards but was more effective catching, hauling in 2 catches, 1 for a 47-yard gain late in the third that set up Fleury's touchdown with 11:04 remaining.

It seemed Hampshire had all the momentum after finding a way to stop the option and holding North on a 4th-and-3 on the Whip-Purs 24 with 7:11 left. After 4 plays the Whips were up to the Thunder 49 and things were looking good until mistakes arose and turnovers started coughing up.

"We've overcome penalties before and I wouldn't say it rattled us but it did put us in a bad situation," Brasile said. "We have a tendency of putting ourselves in bad situations with penalties and that's partly me. I have to make sure we're penalty-free and mistake-free and we haven't been and we can't do that against a good football team."

Jose Hernandez booted a 20-yard field goal in the second quarter. But Woodstock North did its job at times defensively and stuffed Hampshire on 6 of its 8 drives, allowing the Whips m just 3 red zone appearances.

"We stuck it in there after coming off a big win last week, it's a scary game when you're playing a good team and you're coming off a huge win, how you going to respond when you come back?" Thunder coach Jeff Schroeder said. "Our defense I thought played outstanding,"