St. Charles East 14, Waubonsie Valley 13

Score one for perseverance.

After not scoring for the first 40 minutes of Friday night's Upstate Eight Conference football opener at Waubonsie Valley, the St. Charles East offense finally found the end zone.

Sam Gunther's 6-yard touchdown strike to Jacob Krzeczowski on a quick slant over the middle with 7:40 remaining moved the Saints into a tie. David Winn's extra-point put them up 14-13, and that held as the final score at Dick Kerner Stadium in Aurora.

The TD capped a 14-play, 72-yard drive for St. Charles East (2-1, 1-0), which had struggled to do much of anything on offense before that.

"We're trying to feel our way with that young offensive line," Saints coach Ted Monken said. "We are very happy that we learned how to execute toward the end."

"I got rid of the ball quicker," said Gunther, who completed 7 of 7 passes for 54 yards during the decisive drive. "I knew I couldn't sit back there and wait. I had to get rid of the ball quick. Our best run game is our short pass game, really."

Immediately prior to the game-winning drive, Eian O'Brien gave St. Charles East an emotional lift when he blocked a 29-yard field attempt by Waubonsie Valley (1-2, 0-1) late in the third quarter.

"That was huge," Gunther said.

So was Jack Leopardo's 45- interception return for a touchdown that enabled St. Charles East to take a 7-0 lead. It was one of 2 interceptions the Saints made in the first quarter.

But then Waubonsie Valley turned to its ground game with good results. Kenny Harrington, who rushed for 103 yards on 23 carries, ran for an 8-yard touchdown as the Warriors tied the game early in the second quarter.

Mitch Ewald's 25-yard field goal at the gun of the first half gave Waubonsie Valley a 10-7 halftime edge.

An Ewald 22-yarder midway into the third quarter made it 13-7.

But then a number of things went wrong for Waubonsie Valley. The home team prolonged a St. Charles East drive by roughing the punter, had a subsequent field goal blocked and then kept the Saints' TD drive alive with a pass interference call that gave the visitors a first-and-goal at the 9.

"We were in position all night to get control of (the game), we never did," Warriors coach Paul Murphy said. "We just kept making dumb plays."