St. Charles North shuts out West Chicago
When asked to pick out one stat that means the most to them, almost all football coaches on every level will point to the turnover battle; win that and you're likely to win the game.
St. Charles North senior Jayson Reckards picked off the first pass attempted by West Chicago Friday and returned it to the Wildcats' 8-yard line. Quarterback Zach Mettetal punched it in from the 1-yard line two plays later to give the North Stars the lead just 46 seconds into the game.
That set the tone for the rest of the game as St. Charles North's defense would force four more turnovers, all on the West Chicago half of the field, and the North Stars would convert those chances for a 62-0 blowout in a Upstate Eight crossover matchup.
"Our focus every week is for turnovers and take-aways,' said St. Charles North coach Robert Pomazak. "We weren't really satisfied the first two weeks so we kind of made a point this week of forcing kids to get to the football and working through it and the kids took that mentality to the field, I give them all the credit."
The North Stars (3-0) started their next drive at the Wildcats' 34 and Eric Lins started with a 21-yard run and finished with a 6-yard TD run, one of three rushing touchdowns he would score. Lins had a game-high 93 yards on just 8 carries.
"Our defense really put us in a great position all game," said Lins. "And on offense as coach likes to say, we went into beast mode and they couldn't stop us."
North Stars senior Jake Chantos recovered a West Chicago fumble on the next drive at the Wildcats' 26-yard line and the next play Lins went 26 yards for the TD to make it 20-0 only halfway through the first quarter.
St. Charles North started its next five drives at midfield, the West Chicago 47, 36, 29 and 15. Starting with a short field, the North Stars scored touchdowns on four of those five possessions and led 48-0 at halftime. Zach Mettetal threw for three first-half touchdowns, two going to Griffin Hammer and one to Niko Smolinski.
"I think the boys up front did a great job," said Pomazak. "Eric obviously had a great game at running back and Zach managed the game very well. He has some weapons on the perimeter that he can go to and we're just looking to get better. We know that the middle part of our season gets considerably more difficult with Geneva and Batavia. They are the teams to beat until somebody beats them."
The large lead allowed the North Stars to give extended time to their second team and they also moved the ball behind senior quarterback Collin Srocki who had a 6-yard TD run. Junior Demetrio Torres finished the scoring with a 1-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.
"We'll be as good as our depth because in the game of football, guys get injured," said Pomazak. "So for us to get a half where everybody gets an opportunity to take some quality reps, that is a really good day for us."