St. Charles North's Mettetal pitches a beauty at Schaumburg
If Memphis football coach Mike Norvell were to get game footage of St. Charles North's 42-10 season-opening win over Schaumburg on Friday night, he might want to visit Tigers baseball coach Daron Schoenrock.
After all, a 421-yard, 5-TD performance by North Stars quarterback Zach Mettetal, will catch many an eye.
Already committed to play baseball at Memphis, it sure looks like Mettetal would fit in on the big-time gridiron as well.
"He's tremendous," fourth-year North Stars coach Rob Pomczak said after witnessing a 21-for-24 passing performance. "He's an outstanding team leader. A great competitor. Òur program couldn't have a better ambassador."
A dominant second quarter by the North senior QB broke open a 7-3 contest. After a defensive stop at their own 21 of Saxons QB Justin Perez on a fourth-and-2, Mettetal went 11 of 12 passing for 226 yards in the second quarter with 3 of his 5 passing touchdowns.
The first possession of the second quarter was a 7-play, 79-yard drive that ended with a 41-yard scoring strike to Colorado State commit TE Griffin Hammer (6 receptions, 124 yards). The first of his 2 TD catches opened up a 14-3 North advantage with 6:14 left in the first half.
After a 10-yard TD pass from Perez (21-for-34, 206 yards) to sophomore wingback Heze Trotter got the hosts within 14-10 a little over a minute later, Mettetal quickly put the game away on his squad's next two possessions.
First came a 75-yard rainbow to junior running back Lucas Segobiano (5 receptions, 179 yards) for the first of his two TD grabs that allowed the visitors to open back up a 21-10 lead with 4:18 left in the half.
Then, following Brenden Norberg's pick of Perez in the end zone to thwart a long drive for Schaumburg, Mettetal went on a two-minute drive in the final minute of the half, going 6-for-7 for 75 yards and finishing with a 33-yard pass to Adam Durocher.
"We talked about getting off to a great start tonight, about throwing tbe first punch," Pomczak said. "Especially when you play a Mark Stilling team, you know that it will be a physical game."
"Despite being pleased with our effort," said Stilling, "I couldn't be more disappointed with our execution tonight. It was collectively disappointing."