Naperville North, Metea Valley to reset

At least now everyone gets a reset.

Naperville North led Metea Valley 7-0 at halftime when the weather broke bad, Mustang Stadium was evacuated and the DuPage Valley Conference game was suspended until 1 p.m. Saturday.

"Inclement weather, of course, we wanted to err on the side of safety and we'll play the game tomorrow, the second half in its entirety," said Metea Valley principal Darrell Echols.

Before the safe evacuation the entirety of the crowd was wondering what was going on at Naperville North's 8-yard line. On fourth-and-6 with 9.8 seconds left before halftime Metea Valley kicker Ryan Bingham and holder Max Reeves had set up for an attempted 26-yard field goal to culminate a quality Mustangs drive that spanned 51 yards and ran 5:49 off the clock.

Due to an error counting the number of downs that had occurred earlier in the series, though, it would have been the Mustangs' second crack at fourth down.

Naperville North's coaching staff caught on before the snap and after lengthy deliberation by the officials possession was awarded to the Huskies. Quarterback Cliff Vickers merely took a knee to let the second quarter expire.

On the first possession of the game, Naperville North (1-5, 0-2) took advantage of Will deBolt's alert 11-yard return of Metea's pooch kickoff. Starting at the Mustangs' 49-yard line the Huskies fairly sailed downfield, seven plays capped by Elijah Jordan's 4-yard run and Matt Maschmeier's kick for the 7-0 lead at 9:35 of the first quarter.

Despite that fast start a fumble recovery by Naperville North's Dylan Wojtyla followed by Jack Belskis' interception for Metea (1-5, 0-1) stifled continuity until the Mustangs' 16-play march downfield before halftime.

By then Jordan had run for 51 yards and Metea running back Colin Wilcox countered with 55 yards rushing.

In a nonconference meeting the fourth week of the season, Naperville North beat Metea Valley 38-14.