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St. Charles East takes advantage of West Chicago mistakes

St. Charles East's 36-14 season-ending victory over West Chicago on Friday served as a prime example of how penalties can affect the outcome of a football game.

On St. Charles East's opening drive, the host Wildcats sacked St. Charles East sophomore quarterback Zach Mitchell on third down to seemingly force the Saints into a fourth-and-10 at East's 34-yard line. But a facemask penalty gave the Saints a first down at midfield, and six plays later Mitchell found Justin Galante for a 10-yard touchdown pass and a 7-0 lead.

West Chicago (3-6, 2-5 Upstate Eight River) responded with a 33-yard scoring strike from quarterback Peyton Seidler to wide receiver Alex Mitchell, but the touchdown was nullified by an offensive pass interference penalty.

The Saints (4-5, 4-3) continued to capitalize on mistakes.

"The hardest thing for any team is knowing you are hurting yourself more than your opponent," West Chicago coach Ted Monken said. "When you keep making mistakes like the ones we made tonight, it's like you're having to beat two opponents: yourself and your actual opponent."

Leading 10-0, St. Charles East took advantage of a defensive miscue to build a sizeable edge. On third-and-12 at St. Charles East's 35, Mitchell scrambled to his left, then found Galante wide open behind the Wildcats' secondary for a 52-yard bomb to West Chicago's 13. Three plays later, tailback Ramon Lopez plunged into the end zone to push the Saints' lead to 17-0 with 34 seconds remaining in the first half. A 38-yard keeper by Mitchell and a 17-yard TD run by Lopez provided a 30-0 third-quarter cushion.

"We came up big in third- and fourth-down situations tonight," said St. Charles East coach Bryce Farquhar, whom Monken hired at St. Charles East when Monken ran the Saints' program from 2004 to 2008. "Our offensive line did a good job of blocking, and Zach did a nice job of converting those downs using both his feet and his arm."

The victory had special meaning to the Saints' senior class, most of whom have played football together for several seasons.

"Our team's been up and down all season like a rollercoaster. It feels great to go out this way," Lopez said. "A lot of us have been on the same team since middle school at Wredling. It feels great, winning our last game as friends and teammates."

The loss ended a season that at one time had West Chicago dreaming of a rare playoff berth on the 40th anniversary of the Wildcats' Class 3A football championship. West Chicago started the season 3-2, but losing four straight games still couldn't detract from the most wins by a Wildcats squad since 2004.

"We feel we've got the ship going in the right direction," Monken said. "But I'm not sure we're out of the port just yet. Player development is what we're all about right now. We need to improve our strength and conditioning. We've got to get in the weight room and get faster and stronger so that a year from now, we can take the field and match up pound for pound and speed-wise with our opponents. It'll take time and commitment, but getting faster and stronger is important to the program's future."

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