St. Charles East defense stymies North Stars

St. Charles East wasn't the only winner at the ninth annual Cross-town Classic Friday.

Score one for Saints offensive lineman Andrew Bradburn.

Want to know who will win today's Northwestern-Purdue game? How about Sunday's Bears-Vikings battle?

Ask Bradburn.

We ran 12 expert opinions about the key to winning this year's Cross-town Classic.

By experts, I certainly don't mean myself or any of our writers - I know better. I mean the real experts, the players and coaches themselves.

And while almost every one pinpointed something that wound up being critical, I'll go with Blackburn as my winner.

"Defensive line," Bradburn said before the game. "If we can stop their run, we will do pretty good."

Pretty good? How does 10 total rushing yards and no points sound?

Music to linebacker Pat Friel's ears, that's how it sounds.

"Every week we want to get a shutout," Friel said. "We definitely got after it in practice this week."

The Saints got after the North Stars' top back Jordan Huxtable, who had lit up defense after defense the past few weeks. He was held to 11 yards on 10 carries.

"He's had some big games in the past but we feel they haven't played a defense of our caliber except for Bartlett," Friel said. "We just got after them and gang tackled and played as a team."

It just wasn't the North Stars' night. Their best play wound up not even counting, a wide receiver pass from Nick Neari to Jon DeMoss, who surprised many observers by playing and playing well despite his elbow injury.

That Saints defense that posted the shutout is the same one that recently allowed 41 and 49 points in back-to-back weeks. Six overtimes contributed to those inflated scores, but it was still a unit disappointed with that two-game stretch.

Blackburn, though, had no problem picking them as the key to Friday's outcome. He even specifically named Mark Lindholm as a lineman to watch, and Lindholm again made Blackburn look like a prophet with the play of the first half. Lindholm's fumble recovery set up Wes Allen's touchdown run just before halftime and a 7-0 lead.

Allen rushed for 227 yards, with Blackburn and his linemates paving the way.

"We are a big O-line and it is a good feeling when we can run it up the gut every time, when they know it is coming and we can still do it," Blackburn said.

Blackburn wasn't our only expert right on the money. Stars coach Mark Gould also pointed to the team that ran the ball better as the winner, and Saints coach Ted Monken and North Stars QB Sean McGushin both said mistakes would be key, They were, with the North Stars' first two turnovers setting up the Saints' first two touchdowns and a payback win for the seniors like Friel who were on the field last year for North's 28-26 win.

"Last year I was so close to some of the seniors it tore my heart apart to watch them lose," Friel said. "This is for all of them and the East side."

As for Blackburn, does he have any other advice? Maybe today's lottery numbers?

Nah, he just wanted to keep talking about the win and his team's defense.

"It starts with the D-line," Bradburn said. "When a good back like Huxtable gets in open space, he can do whatever he wants. We're pretty big up front and we were able to overpower their offensive line."

jlemon@dailyherald.com