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QB Gray leads Naperville North to season-opening 40-21 win over Homewood-Flossmoor

It was not the best start to the new season for highly-touted Naperville North quarterback Aidan Gray, but the Huskies senior did not let it get him down.

The Northwestern University commit shook off an early interception that led to a 6-0 lead for Homewood-Flossmoor to lead the host Huskies to a 40-21 season-opening victory on Friday night.

A play after the Vikings Jeremy Thomas picked off Gray's pass, H-F jumped ahead on a 35-yard touchdown pass from Cameron Oglesby to Kamrin Cox.

But Gray, who finished the night with 177 yards and 3 touchdowns - plus another 81 yards on the ground - broke off a pair of nice runs on Naperville North's first possession following the miscue.

It led to a 4-yard scoring run by Danny Eloe that put the Huskies ahead for good.

In the first half, Gray had 2 TD passes and 74 yards on 5 runs as the Huskies took a 23-13 lead into halftime.

He had a third TD wiped off the board on a late holding call as the Huskies offense started to click in the second quarter after the slow start.

"I had a lot of nerves with this being senior night, and I made a bad read, but the offense got in a groove in the second quarter and the defense kept us in the game the whole night," Gray said.

"Then Cole Arl opened the (second) half with that monster kick return and after that the defense and our offensive line took over."

After the Huskies shook off the slow start to take a 10-point lead at the half, Arl busted off an 89-yard kick return to start the second half and put Naperville North ahead 30-13.

The lead grew to 40-13 in the fourth quarter after Gray's third touchdown pass of the night and kicker David Olano's second field goal.

The Vikings added a late score but it couldn't take away from a solid opening effort by the defending DuPage Valley Conference champs.

"Aidan just needs to get into the flow of the game and sometimes that means he takes off and runs," Naperville North coach Sean Drendel said. "We don't want him run the ball all the time, obviously, but he's a great athlete and he does whatever it takes to help us."

Eloe opened the scoring for the Huskies with his short run in the first quarter.

Nathan Jacobs, Brock Pettaway and Luke Pettaway each hauled in TD passes from Gray.

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