Wheaton North rallies to beat West Aurora

The second half of Friday night's matchup between West Aurora and Wheaton North looked anything but inviting to the Falcons.

They began play in the third quarter trailing 21-17. Offensive stars Taylor Graham and Mike Trumpy both sustained injuries, with Graham failing to return. And, worst of all, the team across the field showed no signs of quitting.

Yet just when the going got tough for Wheaton North, the Falcons' defense got going. Wheaton North forced 3 second-half turnovers and held the Blackhawks to just 6 points over the final 24 minutes, allowing Wheaton North to emerge victorious with a 38-27 victory.

Senior Will Gemmel did his part on defense, recovering the first West Aurora fumble with 4:14 remaining in the third quarter and later intercepted a pass with 4:15 left in the game to ice the victory.

In between Gemmel's heroics, backup quarterback/safety Justin Swider engineered a pair of scoring drives to give the Falcons (3-2, 1-2 DuPage Valley Conference) an 11-point advantage.

"During the week I don't really play much quarterback because I focus on safety," Swider said. "But I've been looking at all the scouting reports and watching film, and I've just been getting ready for either case if I have to come in.

"I came in, and I felt confident that I could lead this team."

While losing Graham forced the Falcons to change some things offensively, coach Joe Wardynski felt good about Swider running the show.

"He's been playing defense, in fact, more than he's been playing quarterback, but we try to share him enough so that he can go in and run (some of) the same plays that Taylor runs," Wardynski said. "He can make plays with his feet, and that helped us down the stretch."

Swider ran for 34 yards on 3 carries, including a 4-yard touchdown run that put Wheaton North ahead 31-27 at the end of the third quarter.

Despite an offense that gained 357 total yards, Blackhawks (3-2, 1-2 DVC) coach Buck Drach left Wheaton wondering what could have been.

"Those 3 turnovers absolutely killed us," Drach said. "We ran the ball pretty well - the offensive line did a nice job opening holes, but those 3 turnovers killed us in the second half."

The Falcons opened up a 14-0 lead in the opening five minutes of the game before West Aurora seized control with a 21-3 flurry, keyed by big plays from Markus Cocroft and Leon Spears.