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Geneva runs over Hersey

It's not normal for Geneva to play on Saturday afternoon and even less normal to go an entire game without a touchdown pass.

But the host Vikings did both and turned it into a 41-27 playoff victory over Mid Suburban East co-champion Hersey.

With standout quarterback Daniel Santacaterina failing to throw a touchdown pass for the first this year, the Vikings instead rode the Superman cape of junior tailback Justin Taormina.

Taormina ran for five touchdowns and Santacaterina ran for one in the Class 7A first-round victory. Taormina's effort overcame a three-touchdown performance from Hersey tailback Joe Caputo.

"I was very happy with the entire team today, it was just a great team effort," Taormina said. "This was my best game so far this year, and I don't know how I did it. But it was just great quarterbacking and great blocking."

The perfect weather conditions allowed both teams to use speed as a key weapon, though ultimately it was Vikings' size advantage on the offensive line that paved the way for Geneva (9-1) to reach the second round next week at home against Rockton Hononegah, a 35-14 winner over Rockford Auburn.

"With the quarterback that they have, it is hard to take away one or the other (pass or run)," Hersey coach Joe Pardun said after his team finished the season at 6-4. "We struggled with that, and Santacaterina played great today in leading his team."

Taormina (28 carries, 147 yards) set that stage early, letting Hersey know it would have more than the NIU-bound Santacaterina's talented throwing arm to deal with. He scored on a two-yard dive to cap Geneva's opening 73-yard drive, and bulled over from a yard out with less than a minute left in the first quarter to open a 14-0 lead.

Hersey countered quickly with a 10-play, 65-yard drive to open the second quarter, capped by Caputo's 5-yard slash into the end zone.

The Huskies then recovered an onside kick and quarterback Eric Portenlanger wasted no time in connecting with Will Trossen on a 47-yard route across the middle for a touchdown and a 14-14 tie.

The first half shootout continued when Taormina returned the ensuing kickoff to the Geneva 42, and carried the ball five times and pulled in a 12-yard screen pass to eventually set up his 4-yard touchdown run.

Hersey found itself in a 27-14 hole moments later when Taormina capped another drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.

But with 48 seconds left in the half, Hersey went 45 yards in two plays for the score, one a 44-yard toss from Portenlanger to Cole Monckton, and the other being Caputo's one-yard scoring smash up the middle.

Both defenses were stronger in the second half, until Hersey tied the score at 27-27 on Caputo's 13-yard sprint around right end with 4:12 left in the third quarter. Caputo finished with 94 yards on 11 carries and completed one pass for 24 yards, while turning in another solid performance at linebacker.

Santacaterina turned in a game-saving play on the next drive when his pass for Pace Temple was intercepted by Trossen inside the Hersey 10-yard line. Trossen took off the other way, but Santacaterina, the only Viking with a chance to make the play, caught him around the Geneva 25-yard line.

"It was a check route and I was talking to the ref to make sure I was onsides," Temple said of the play that could have turned things in Hersey's favor. "I thought it was a run play, but Daniel changed it right when I wasn't looking, all of the sudden it was a pass and I tried to tip it, but he got it."

From there, a series of penalties hurt Hersey and the Vikings held. Momentum swung with it, and Geneva opened the fourth quarter with a long drive that ended with Santacaterina scoring from 2 yards out on a bootleg play.

It left Pardun thinking about what could have been.

"Trossen comes up with his fifth interception of the year, taking it all the way back, but their quarterback is a competitor and he made the play," Pardun said.

When Stephen Kemp sacked Portenlanger (11 of 26, 170 yards) to end one drive, and Temple made a leaping interception on another in the fourth quarter, Geneva escaped with the victory.

For Geneva coach Rob Wicinski, the formula for victory was something he has grown used to.

"I feel comfortable running the ball, I've been doing it for 15 years," Wicinski said. "I know I have weapons on the outside and I have a habit of throwing the ball in the red zone, and you can see what might happen there," he added, referring to Trossen's pick and race into Geneva territory.

Santacaterina (15 of 22, 180 yards) was thankful for his offensive line of Ben Baker, Loundon Vollbrecht, JohnBoenzi, TK Hood and Joey Wagner.

"When the run game works, the pass game opens up a little more," Santacaterina said. "It was just real solid balance today, and really good execution by the offensive line. We used our size to our advantage."

Hersey came into the game fresh off a 48-6 drubbing of 7A playoff qualifier and conference foe Rolling Meadows, a game that left Pardun saying that when his team is running on all cylinders, "we are dangerous."

He left Geneva on Saturday with more praise for his squad.

"Our offense did a great job keeping us in the game, and our guys responded all year and kept fighting," Pardun said. "We could have mailed it in early, but we kept with it."

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