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St. Charles North stymies rival Saints

After spotting St. Charles East a 7-0 first-quarter lead, St. Charles North's defense commanded the line of scrimmage, giving its offense some time to regroup Friday night.

While the defense limited the Saints (4-2, 2-2) to 32 yards of offense over the last 3 quarters, the offense responded with a couple of big plays in the second half during the North Stars' 28-7 DuKane Conference victory at St. Charles North.

Junior quarterback Kyler Brown's 28-yard touchdown run with 2:15 left in the third quarter snapped a 7-7 deadlock and put the North Stars (5-1, 4-0) on top for good.

"He had made the wrong read a few times prior to that," said North Stars coach Rob Pomazak. "We kind of drew that (play) up on paper and showed him that they (Saints) were crashing the ends, and if he just takes it, he'll have a touchdown."

"I saw the (defensive) end coming up on Sam and I pulled it back," said Brown, who gained 48 yards on 8 carries.

Senior Tyler Nubin's 2-yard TD run with 5:20 left extended the North Stars' lead to 21-7 before Brown (6 of 13, 71 yards) capped his night by connecting with Alec Kritta for a 33-yard TD pass to make it 28-7 with 2:31 remaining.

Not too bad for a guy who wasn't expected to start until his older brother, Peyton, suffered a torn ACL in the season opener against Schaumburg.

"Kyler has had to step into a really tough position and then his brother, Peyton, is coaching him up every single play," said Pomazak.

"It means everything to me," said Kyler. "I'm playing through Peyton."

Meanwhile, the North Stars' defense dominated behind linemen Dj Oshin, Dami Oshin, Johnny Ambrogio, linebackers Billy Durocher, Dan Daley, John Williams II and Ben Furtney, and secondary standouts Ethan Romero and Nubin.

Facing a strong Saints' offensive line, the North Stars' interior players won the battle.

"We have some size there but we also have some quickness," said Pomazak. "Guys like Dj Oshin, Dami Oshin and Johnny Ambrogio - they certainly won the point of attack."

St. Charles North held the Saints without a first down and just 2 yards of offense in the second half.

"Our defensive line came in with an attitude," said Ambrogio. "All week in practice, we worked on staying low and shooting through the line."

The Saints, playing without injured senior running back Justin Jett most of the way, grabbed a 7-0 lead on B.J. Crossen's 4-yard touchdown pass to Nathan Hull with 2:43 left in the opening quarter.

However, the yards were hard to come by the rest of the way for the Saints.

"Our offense was pretty stagnant tonight," said Saints coach Bryce Farquhar. "This is all on me. This whole game came down to the fact that I didn't get the guys prepared the way they needed to.

"I thought our defense played very well but our offense was bad and I need to get them where we need to be."

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