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Surges does it all in St. Charles North's win over Hoffman Estates

Drew Surges spoon fed St. Charles North another win Saturday in Hoffman Estates.

Surges ran for a touchdown, caught a touchdown pass, ran for a conversion and had an interception to help lead the North Stars to their 10th consecutive win as they beat Hoffman Estates 25-9 Saturday in the Class 7A playoffs.

The win moved fourth-seeded St. Charles North (11-1) into the 7A quarterfinals. The North Stars will host 12-seed St. Rita next weekend.

It was Surges' 91-yard catch and run on a "Spoon route" in the second quarter that gave St. Charles North some breathing room against an energized Hoffman team.

"It was fun running down the sidelines," said Surges, who came out of the backfield, slid to the middle of the field, caught the ball and then raced untouched.

"I saw where I was going and just ran it right."

St. Charles North quarterback Will Vaske, who was operating with the strong wind at his back, said he threw the ball and just watched Surges run.

"We just had that designed like that," said Vaske, who would throw two touchdown passes on the afternoon and finished 7-of-12 for 188 yards.

"It is easy when you have a guy matched up one-on-one. He is a scary man out there."

The North Stars came up with big plays like this all afternoon to hold off the Hawks.

They held off Hoffman early in the game forcing a 36-yard field goal from Hoffman's Emanuel Correa. That after the Hawks had driven to the 2-yard line and had a touchdown called back for holding. It was one of 11 first half penalties against Hoffman.

Trailing 3-0, Surges (29 carries, 130 yards) took over for the North Stars. Heading into the wind, Surges carried the ball five consecutive times and then capped the 7-play, 80-yard drive with a 5-yard touchdown run. He then added a conversion run to make it 8-3.

Hoffman (7-4) put together a drive of its own. Starting at its own 21, the Hawks went 14 plays to St. Charles North's 15. But a fumble by Hoffman, one of its four turnovers, was recovered by the North Stars' Henry Warsaw.

Three plays later, on a 3rd-and-13 play, it was suddenly 15-3 St. Charles North.

"The play before we saw that we had both the wheel route and the middle of the field open," St. Charles North coach Rob Pomazak said. "We talked about it over the headset and chose the spoon route over the middle and he took it all the way."

St. Charles North added to its lead when Hunter Liszka booted a 32-yard field goal just before the end of the half to make it 18-3 at the break.

Hoffman had the ball and the wind to begin to second half. But an interception by Alex Valenzuela and his subsequent return to the Hoffman 9-yard line changed things quickly.

Vaske then found Jake Furtney on a 9-yard touchdown pass and the North Stars led 25-3.

That gave St. Charles North some extra cushion as Hoffman put together a successful scoring drive. DiMarte Neustader, who started in place for the injured Quincy Williams, scored on a 2-yard run, to cut the lead to 25-9 with 7:34 left in the third quarter.

Surges again came up a with a huge play. He stepped in front of a deep pass and picked the ball off inside the North Stars' 20-yard line to turn the Hawks away again. He would then help run the clock down, carrying the ball 10 consecutive plays in the fourth quarter.

"Drew knows he has to show up every day," Pomazak said. "We talked about seniors being seniors and dudes being the dudes and Drew never shies away from that. He is just an absolute animal."

Hoffman Estates coach Tim Heyse said that despite the loss, his program continues to head in the right direction.

"You just can't turn the ball over against a good team," Heyse said. "Our kids have been unbelievable all year. The leadership by our seniors has been remarkable. The seniors the last three years have been stacking, stacking and stacking."

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