St. Charles North breaks free in 3rd quarter
Just before the second-half kickoff, St. Charles North's Jeff Stolzenburg had a few words for North Stars head coach Mark Gould.
"I told the coach, 'I'm going to run this back,'" said Stolzenburg.
And that's exactly what the 6-foot-4, 175-pound senior did, as he raced 95 yards for a touchdown on the kickoff to open the second half.
The score served as a catalyst for the North Stars, who exploded for 27 unanswered third-quarter points during Friday night's season-opening 43-13 nonconference triumph over host Batavia.
"He called it," Gould said of Stolzenburg's special teams highlight. "That just lit a fire under everybody. Not that the defense needed it but the offense kind of needed it.
"I think it helped us play more relaxed. At 9-7, you're a little bit tight so that extra score certainly helped relax things a little bit."
Limited to 23 yards of total offense in the first half, Batavia made things interesting right before halftime when an acrobatic interception and 30-yard return by sophomore defensive lineman Alec Lyons helped set up fullback Braden Hartmann's 1-yard TD plunge with 16.4 seconds remaining. Stolzenburg helped the North Stars recapture some of that momentum just 15 seconds into the third quarter before fullback Michael Ghanem took a screen pass from junior quarterback Jake Bergren and rumbled 42 yards downfield for a touchdown that upped the visitors' lead to 23-7.
Less than 4 minutes later, senior linebacker Dominic Imbordino scooped up a fumble and returned it 40 yards for a touchdown to make it 29-7 before Bergren found the end zone on a 7-yard keeper to cap the North Stars' third-quarter onslaught.
"It was a total team effort - that's what we were looking for," said Gould. "I don't think we had any runbacks or defensive returns for touchdowns last year. We didn't have a lot of big plays last year. You need those kind of things sometimes that kick-starts you and gets you going."
Defensively, the North Stars made life tough for the Bulldogs' offense as often-harrassed quarterbacks Noel Gaspari and Kevin Flinn combined to complete 9-of-26 passes for 87 yards.
"The defense did a fantastic job," said Gould. "We put them in a bad situation late in the first half but they kept us in the game. It took a half for the offense to get going but with the help of the defense - and special teams - it did. The defense allowed us to play more relaxed."
Batavia tailback Nick Janacek's 22-yard touchdown run with 6:13 remaining capped the scoring.
"In many, many years, this is as about an unknown team in terms of our personnel to even us as coaches," said Bulldogs coach Mike Gaspari. "We needed a game to see where we're at, what kind of things we can do.
"The tough thing for us offensively was going against the quality defense that we had to go against. That was very difficult. But it was a great learning experience. Like I told the kids, 'we survived it, now let's improve as a result of our work.'"