Keys to winning key of the city
A double overtime homecoming, a second consecutive win over Batavia, a second straight defeat to Geneva, a quadruple overtime contest at Neuqua Valley, and four successive games of scoring 42 or more points - St. Charles East has played a wild and adventurous schedule and had some wonderful accomplishments during its first seven games of the season.
But one thing the Saints still hope to do is something that they couldn't do last year: beat St. Charles North. The Saints will travel across town to North Friday night and try to do that in the always exciting showdown between the two rival schools and two of the top teams in the Upstate Eight Conference.
What's at stake: A victory would guarantee at the very least, a second-place finish in UEC for the Saints. Bartlett is likely to finish undefeated in conference as long as the Hawks defeat lowly East Aurora next week.
"It's nothing more than another big football game," Saints coach Ted Monken said. "They know it's their best buddies, but it's likely we'll be in the playoffs so for the most part we just need to calm down, play good football and execute."
The North Stars have another difficult task next weekend at Neuqua Valley. The Wildcats should have no problem disposing Streamwood (1-6) tomorrow afternoon, which would improve their record to 4-4 and make next Friday a must-win to qualify for the playoffs. The North Stars do not want to head to Naperville next week with the potential of losing their second straight game heading into the playoffs.
"The same thing happened last year and then (Neuqua Valley) came in here fighting for their life," North Stars coach Mark Gould said. "It's a tough draw but we're putting a positive spin on it. It can toughen you up and we're trying to get a higher seed in the playoffs."
Oh, and of course, there's the key to the city of St. Charles and bragging rights that the winners will enjoy until next year.
Finding the end zone: When these teams find the end zone Friday, the ball will likely be in the hands of either Wes Allen or Jordan Huxtable. After rushing for 17 touchdowns in 2007, Allen already has 22 touchdowns this fall. Huxtable, who scored 3 touchdowns last week, leads the North Stars with 12 on the season.
Key matchups: Allen (198 carries, 1,362 yards, 21 TDs) and the Saints run game against the St. Charles North run defense. The North Starts desperately need to determine a formula for stopping Allen if they hope to keep the Saints from controlling the tempo of the game and out of the end zone.
"He's even more of load this year," Gould said. "He could always get through the hole but now he puts an exclamation point when he gets a full head of steam and knocks down people."
The North Stars defensive line of Trevor Dunne, Josh Peters and Kasey Ro will have quite the chore.
"He's reminds of when they had John Brown," Gould said. "We're going to have to slow him down and not give him that full momentum because he hits hard and makes people miss, so we need to slow him down at the line."
Just as important is Huxtable (115 carries, 828 yards, 11 TDs) and the North Stars ground game against the St. Charles East run defense.
"That tailback Huxtable has come on and given them another element to a well-rounded attack," Monken said. "They're a good, solid team that can score in bunches by throwing it over your head or running it right by you."
The Saints take a lot of pride in stopping the run while the North Stars offensive line has done their job in creating plenty of open spaces for Huxtable. While the Saints have had good success in shutting down the run, they've got to make sure they aren't susceptible to big pass plays.
"For the most part we've been good against the run," Monken said. "We're stumbling when we're not pressuring the quarterback and that's when we're giving up some points. We weren't so fortunate at Neuqua but we were with Lake Park. You've got to do a nice job stopping the run and also pressure the quarterback."
Defensive ends Jonathan Voytilla and Jeff Marsh, linebackers James Sheehan, Phil Bucaro, Pat Friel and the rest of the Saints defense will look for a fearless effort.
Sizing up the quarterbacks: Nick Neari (25-of-58, 317 yards, 5 INTs, 2 TDs) and Tim Russell (49-of-86, 544 yards, 5 INTs, 4 TDs), the respective quarterbacks for North and East at the start of the season, are no longer starting for either team, although both are expected to play significant roles on the football field, some of which could occur behind center.
Dan White (6-foot, 180 pounds) will get the start for the second straight Friday for the Saints. While he's unproven in throwing the ball this season (8-of-19, 80 yards, 2 INTs), and hasn't thrown a touchdown pass, he brings unmatched athleticism to the position (39 carries, 258 yards, 2 TDs, 14 receptions, 152 yards, 2 TDs).
"Both (of our guys) bring something to help mix it up," Monken said. "We look at what will give us our best chance of succeeding."
The Saints have not thrown a touchdown pass since Sept. 19 against Streamwood.
The North Stars' Sean McGushin (6-foot-3, 205 pounds) is coming off a career-best performance against Larkin in which he threw 3 touchdown passes. McGushin (34-of-63, 535 yards, 3 interceptions, 7 TDs) continues to play well at quarterback while Neari has adopted a wide receiver role (2 catches, 87 yards, 1 TD), something the team needed with the loss of Jon DeMoss (12 catches, 212 yards, 3 TDs) to an injury.
"(Sean's) gotten a number of games under his belt and he's a smart kid who knows what he's looking for," Gould said. "It's a rivalry game so there will be some nerves and while we want to do a lot of different things we're trying to keep things simple."
They giveth, they taketh away: St. Charles North is plus-8 (21 takeaways, 13 turnovers) in turnovers this season while St. Charles East is at 0 (15 takeaways and turnovers).
If one thing is for certain, both teams have learned how important it is to hold onto the ball. In the North Stars' two losses, they've turned the ball over 6 times. As for the Saints, they turned the ball over like crazy against Geneva as Allen fumbled a way a sure score into the end zone and Russell threw 3 interceptions, 2 that were returned for touchdowns and the other which culminated in a scoring drive. A turnover at an inopportune time and an ill-timed location on the field could be the game-breaker Friday.
Playmakers - Don't get caught napping: While there's so much emphasis on stopping the run for both teams, don't be surprised if a tight end or a wide receiver for either team becomes a key factor to the success of the offense.
"A lot of times in a big game there's so much focus on stopping a big player that sometimes, like in basketball, someone who isn't the main guy steps up and scores 22 points," Monken said. "It's very likely some of these guys will have any influence on how things turn out."
Watch out for Paul DeBord (20 catches, 260 yards, 1 TD), Tyler Nutting (16, 152), Jess Striedl (5, 47) and Nolan Possley (4, 35) for the Saints. And don't lose sight of Jeff Stolzenburg (17 receptions, 267 yards, 2 TDs), Eric Battle (10, 121), Huxtable (8, 79, 1) Michael Ghanem (4, 44) and Kyle Harmon (3, 53) for the North Stars.
"I think we've both been trying to mix it up," Gould said. "You want to keep teams honest."
Welcome back Lefelstein and Wiebe: Both teams will welcome the return of a starter. The North Stars' senior free safety Mike Lefelstein has been out since Oct. 4 with an ankle injury. Senior fullback Kyle Wiebe (52 rushes, 364 yards, 5 TDs) didn't play last week for the Saints due to a sore back but is expected to return.
Special teams: There's always so much emphasis on the offense and the defense, but often times it comes down to a play or two on special teams that could quickly change the temperament of one team.
"Our kickoff returns have been giving us great field position and we've been just an eyelash from breaking a few," Gould said.
Neither team's kicker has a field goal this fall with the Saints' Dan Keller edging the North Stars' Cos Vivirito in extra points by a margin of 26-23.
"Returning the ball better would be nice," Monken said. "Anders Johnson has done a nice job punting, and our returns have been sporadic because of punting at this level, but we work hard on kick returns and would like to split one."
Facts, figures and history: St. Charles North held on for a 28-26 victory last year when Jake Juriga and Tim Janeway stopped quarterback Sam Gunther short of the goal line on a potential game-tying 2-point conversion with less than 3 minutes remaining.
The North Stars last won back-to-back games against the Saints when they won three times in a row from 2002-2004. The teams met twice in the 2005 season and the Saints were victorious on both occasions.
The game is leading the Walgreens High School Game of the Week voting, with the contest ending at 6 p.m. today. If selected, FOX Chicago will be sending out a news team to cover the game and winning highlights will be shown Friday at 10.