The St. Charles North football team came into Elgin needing a confidence builder, and the North Stars got it.

Behind a strong ground attack and a defensive effort that produced 5 turnovers, the North Stars defeated the Maroons 49-0 in Upstate Eight Conference River Division play on Friday night at Memorial Field.

The North Stars (1-3, 1-1) tallied 216 of their 299 total yards on the ground, and Evan Kurtz got his team on the board with a 6-yard touchdown run five minutes into the game.

“I knew it was bound to happen,” Kurtz said of his team’s first win. “I came in feeling like I could break some big plays.”

Kurtz gained 92 yards on just 6 carries and added another TD on a 4-yard run for a 28-0 lead with 7:17 left in the second quarter.

Nicholas McCullough added an 88-yard punt return touchdown in the first quarter, and George Edlund (9 carries, 73 yards) had the first TD of the second quarter on a 3-yard run.

North went into halftime with a 42-0 lead by finding the end zone two more times in the final 1:17 of the first half. Quarterback Ryan Fischbach threw an 83-yard touchdown pass to Zachary Kirby, and Alec Datoli ran a fumble recovery back 20 yards for the final score of the half.

Elgin (0-4, 0-2) was able to move the ball and got 88 rushing yards from Jaylen Clemons.

“He had over 100 yards last week,” said North Stars’ coach Mark Gould. “He’s a good runner, and we knew he was a good a runner. We wanted to contain him, and I thought we did a good job.”

The Maroons marched into North territory four times in the first half but struggled to hold onto the ball with 3 of their 4 fumbles coming in the half.

“We’ve got to be able to take care of the football,” Maroons’ coach Dave Bierman said. “At times I thought we could move it, but we’ve got to take care of it.”

Elgin quarterback Ryan Sitter was 4-for-13 with 70 passing yards. The Maroons finished with 205 total yards.

Tim Hausl had the North Stars’ final touchdown on a 6-yard run late in the fourth quarter.