Win against St. Charles North leaves Wheaton North smiling

Brayton Maske couldn't hide his jubilant smile.

It wasn't regarding his 210-yard and three rushing score performance. It was after raving about his offensive line.

"They're ridiculous. They're just ridiculous," Maske said following Wheaton North's lopsided 35-3 victory over St. Charles North on Friday. "They're all super cool guys, but they also do a great job blocking for me. They've always done great."

Maske's masterpiece also was a little personal. Wheaton North (3-1, 1-1 DuKane Conference) was coming off a heartbreaking overtime loss to Batavia the week prior.

"We had a good week of practice," Falcons coach Joe Wardynski said. "As coaches, we were very interested to see how this group would respond."

The North Stars (2-2, 0-2) also beat them in the spring season - a game in which Maske was injured in.

"I'm kind of hard on myself. I feel like I've underperformed in (the first two weeks)," Maske said. "I really felt like I needed to prove myself this game…also, we lost against them, so I wanted to show them (what I can do)."

Wardynski summed up Maske succinctly, "He's a workhorse."

In the first half, Wheaton North took an initial 14-0 lead after a pair of Maske scores of 57 yards and one yard on their first two possessions. The North Stars tacked on a 37-yard field goal by Hunter Liszka with 8:25 remaining in the half, but the Falcons answered with a 13-play drive that ended with a Mark Forcucci 1-yard touchdown run to take a 21-3 Falcons lead at the half.

North Stars quarterback Ethan Plumb threw a half-opening interception and Maske needed just two plays to go 26 combined yards and go up 28-3 with 10:11 remaining in the third quarter.

Falcons junior running back Luke Beedle filled in the rest of the way, grinding for 61 yards and the final Falcons touchdown with 5:31 left in the third quarter.

"They were a better football team (tonight). Way better," North Stars coach Rob Pomazak said. "We just didn't execute from a scheme standpoint (defensively) at all. At all."

The North Stars were led by John Vindl's 46 yards rushing. Plumb was limited to just 7-of-13 for 69 yards and two interceptions by Freddie Elftmann and Kaiden Libby.

"They were a very physical team. They did a great job of just handling the point of attack. We did a terrible job of responding to it," Pomazak added.