St. Charles North rolls over Streamwood
St. Charles North needed a win to become playoff eligible. Streamwood just needed a win.
Both teams knew going into Friday night's game they were going to see the best out of each other and turnovers would be huge.
It would be 3 Sabre miscues that swung the momentum, and the game, in favor of the North Stars as they secured at least playoff eligibility with a 44-6 Upstate Eight Conference River Division win at Millennium Field in Streamwood.
The ball went back-and-forth in the first quarter as both teams failed to gain any ground. Streamwood found itself backed up against its own goal line, but finally seemed to find a rhythm before a trick play went awry. Receiver Noah Polich took a handoff on a jet sweep before he pulled up to pass.
The North Stars (5-2, 3-2) were not fooled however as the defense crashed through the offensive line and Polich threw the ball up for grabs. Zachary Woeste came down with it and the North Stars would not miss their next scoring opportunity.
North Stars' quarterback Nathan Didier would march his team down to the 2-yard line before the horn sounded for the end of the first quarter. On the first play of the second, Didier kept the ball, crossing the goal line and giving his team the spark it needed.
It also helped to have a pair of power running backs in the backfield as well, with Dominick Sidari and Eric Lins scoring on runs of 3 yards and 1 yard respectively, giving Didier the ability to run the offense his coaches wanted.
"Our first couple of drives were not the way we wanted to start," North Stars coach Robert Pomazak said. "As the game wore on we got better. We run a run-pass read option so if the play is not there he can hand the ball off and we can run it. Sidari and Lins had some really big runs for us."
The second half was more of the same for St. Charles North as Sidari (85 yards, 3 TDs), and Lins, (82 yards, 2 TDs), continued to get into the end zone while the defense continued to come up with stops leading to 17-unanswered second half points.
Though they had opportunities in the first half, the Sabres (2-5, 2-3) could not move the ball well enough to get any momentum, being forced to punt on 3 of their 5 first half possessions despite running a similar offense to their opponent.
"Our plays are built in run-pass plays and we tried to adjust them to work to what we were shown defensively," Sabres head coach Mark Orszula said. "We just have to play hard and we have to be the best we can at everything we do."
The lone score for the Sabres came after a turnover of their own from a botched snap that Jelyn Hill pounced on and gave Streamwood a short field to work with. Quarterback Max Draper finished with 126 yards passing, but his only touchdown came on a 4-yard pass to Polich.
Leading rusher for Streamwood, Tae Reetz, who forced 4 fumbles last week on defense, was limited to just 20 snaps on the defensive side of the ball and played sparingly throughout the second half on offense after not playing in the first half other than punts.
Orszula said that Reetz had some "nagging injuries so we tried to limit him a little bit and we have other kids we have confidence in."
Dazwan Bowens filled in for Reetz for the bulk of the carries but as a whole the run game did not do well for the Sabres as they were limited to just 6 yards on the ground.