Stunning comeback gives Metea first DVC victory
The celebration after Metea Valley's football victory said it all.
The Mustangs' 29-28 win Friday over visiting Naperville North was their first football victory as member of the DuPage Valley Conference. It was a night of big plays on both sides and a memorable comeback by Metea that saw the team overcome a 13-point deficit with 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.
“We had to get our first DVC win. You can't start the season out 0-2,” said Metea quarterback Conner Lovely. “The offense started out slow, but we worked through stuff and got back our mojo.”
The Mustangs (1-1, 1-1) got the ball back with 1:46 left in the game on their own 30. Lovely threw a 26-yare strike to Jack Feeley on the first play and later connected on consecutive 14-yard passes to Benjamin Loutsis.
An incomplete pass turned into a big play for the Metea as the Huskies were called for defensive pass interference, and that moved the ball to the 5. On the next play Lovely hit Brad Fekety in the end zone to tie the game and Lovely made the extra point for the lead with just 51.3 seconds left.
“From an excitement standpoint it was pretty special. We just hung in there. We shot ourselves in the foot at times, but we showed the character to stay in it,” said Mustangs coach Ben Kleinhans.
Naperville North (0-2, 0-1) scored first on a steady drive, moving the ball 36 yards in 7 plays and capping it with quarterback Dylan Fadden's 1-yard keeper with 2:09 left in the first quarter.
A pass from Fadden to Jalen Lockhart for 20 yards helped move the ball on the drive. Big plays also helped the Huskies scored again early in the second quarter as Fadden rushed for 33 yards and Lockhart 30, which set up Matt Montgomery's 17-yard scoring run with 10:24 remaining until halftime.
Then came the really big plays. On the ensuing kickoff, Metea's Amiri Finner returned it 91 yards. On Naperville North's following possession, Lockhart made good on a 62-yard TD run.
The scoring was quiet until the final quarter. Lovely saw Feeley downfield sprinting past the last Huskies defender at about the Naperville North 40, and he hit end zone for an 80-yard play with 10:05 to play.
With 5:50 to play, the Huskies' T.J. Agyakye returned an interception 17 yards to push Naperville North ahead 28-15. Metea struck again with a big play about 1:30 later as Lovely found Jordan Cagigal wide open on a 50-yard TD pass. Lovely's extra point was good and Metea pulled to within 28-22.
“We're trying to find the hole between the cornerback and the safety in the cover-2. But the holes were bigger because the receivers made such great plays,” Lovely said of Metea's touchdown passes.
Lockhart led all rushers with 198 yards.
Naperville North coach Sean Drendel said the Huskies will be refocusing on fundamentals in the coming week as a double-digit number of penalties and two fumbles, including one that led to a Metea touchdown in the final quarter, caused the team's downfall.
“It's all you can do (working on fundamentals). We did some great things tonight just not enough of them,” he said.