St. Charles North blanks Streamwood for 6th win

St. Charles North wasted little time jumping out to a big lead on Friday night against host Streamwood at Millennium Field, scoring twice in the opening 34 seconds, and went on to a 41-0 Upstate Eight River Division win. The North Stars improved to 6-1, 4-0 to clinch their fourth straight playoff berth.

"It's awesome," North coach Rob Pomazak said. "Our goal every year is to have an extended season. The kids have worked hard and battled some adversity to get here. I'm proud of them and now we are going to work on getting good position in the playoffs. We have two tough games left against Geneva and Batavia, so we still have some work to do."

Alec Kritta got things going for the North Stars with an electrifying 80-yard return for a touchdown on the opening kickoff to make it 7-0. Streamwood muffed the ensuing kickoff and Ethan Romero recovered for North. Just two plays later Lucas Segobiano scored from 1 yard out to make it 14-0.

"Before the game we talked about wanting to get a big play against their special teams," Kritta said. "We just brought a lot of energy and executed what we needed to do. We felt coming into the season we had a good team and if we just worked hard we could get back to the playoffs and we have."

Segobiano added another 1-yard touchdown run. He had a team-high 57 yards on 10 carries in limited action. North quarterback Mike Hohensee also played just a little more than a quarter with the game well in hand. He completed 7 of 9 passes for 93 yards, including a 34-yard touchdown pass to Matthew Spotts in the second quarter.

"We have been focused on making the playoffs again ever since the end of last season," Hohensee said. "We knew Streamwood had a good defense so we talked all week about how we need to execute. It was great to get off to the fast start."

Sam DeMarco added a 5-yard touchdown run and Billy Dorocher had a 29-yard touchdown pass to Ben Furtney.

The North Stars led 41-0 at halftime resulting in a running clock the second half. North had a 279-68 advantage in total yards.

"We just always try to keep it about us," Pomazak said. "We just keep trying to improve every week and keep working on the minutia."

Streamwood fell to 0-7, 0-5. Leo Marin had an interception for the Sabres and Dan Wisniewski had a fumble recovery.

"When you are facing a team like North you can't shoot yourself in the foot and fall behind by 14 points right away," Streamwood coach Don Guindon said. "We are just trying to get a lot of young guys some playing time right now."