St. Charles N. 28, St. Charles E. 26
On a night when St. Charles East was 32 minutes away from capturing its first outright Upstate Eight Conference football title, cross-town rival St. Charles North had other ideas.
The visiting North Stars stormed out of the gate early, scoring 3 touchdowns in the first 8 ½ minutes, then withstood a furious fourth-quarter rally to edge the Saints 28-26 during Friday night's annual Cross-town Classic at Norris Stadium.
With the win, the North Stars (5-3, 4-1) put themselves in conference title contention, creating a logjam atop the UEC standings heading into next week's home game against Neuqua Valley.
"It was a huge win," said North Stars senior linebacker Brandon Nothnagel. "Not only was it the biggest rivalry -- the East-North game -- but had East won, they would have won conference (outright)."
"Now, we're still in the hunt for conference (title) and it gives us five wins."
Trailing 28-14 after 3 quarters, the Saints (6-2, 5-1) put together a quick 3-play, 62-yard scoring drive to narrow the deficit to 28-20 on a 19-yard TD pass from Sam Gunther to Jacob Krzeczowski with 5:50 left.
After Tom Kuebel's interception gave the ball back to the Saints, Chris Caci punched it into the end zone on a 4th-and-goal play from the 1-yard line to make it 28-26 with 2:49 remaining.
But the North Stars' defense rose to the occasion, as lineman Tim Janeway and linebacker Jake Juriga combined to stop Gunther short of the goal line on the potential 2-point conversion tying attempt.
"There was nothing to hold back right there," said Nothnagel. "I think it was Juriga -- he stepped up and made a nice stop.
"We knew they were in man-to-man (defense) so we were trying to get our receivers loose," added Saints coach Ted Monken. "The route didn't work out the way we expected. The quarterback scrambled and we just couldn't find anybody open."
The Saints got the ball back at their own 27 with 30 seconds remaining and no timeouts left but back-to-back sacks by Janeway and Dan McSweeney sealed the North Stars' first cross-town victory since 2004 -- snapping a 3-game losing streak to St. Charles East.
"Our defensive line has been doing a great job," North Stars coach Mark Gould said of a unit that recorded 5 sacks and repeatedly harassed Gunther (15-of-25, 181 yards). "I think last week really helped us -- having to pass-rush 40-something times against Larkin (in a 27-13 win). They did a nice job getting in the quarterback's face.
"This was big on all kinds of levels. You go from being underdogs to being right there going for conference (title). To come here and get a win, especially when we've taken it on the chin three games in a row -- and two of them here -- was huge."
As was the North Stars_ 14-0 start that included a 43-yard scoring pass from Nick Neari to Tim Ohlrich on their first offensive series and Neari's 1-yard TD run after Zach McCullough recovered a loose ball on the ensuing kickoff at the Saints' 15.
"If we had played a better first quarter, the fourth quarter probably would have been whole lot different," said Monken. "But woulda, coulda, shoulda and we didn't get the job done."