St. Charles East pushes East Aurora around

St. Charles East opened Friday's Upstate Eight Conference football game against East Aurora with a squib kick.

The kick died in the mud and Bryce Barry recovered it. Three offensive plays later and Zachary Zajicek was in for a 21-yard touchdown.

It was that kind of night for the Saints who easily handled the Tomcats 41-0. The Saints remain tied for first place in the UEC with Lake Park. Next up for the Saints will be Waubonsie Valley, which was defeated by Neuqua Valley on Friday.

"We focused on East Aurora and tomorrow we'll get some Waubonsie Valley tape," Saints coach Mike Fields said. "I keep telling the boys that we're on our circus trip like the Bulls. Our goal is win all four (consecutive road games) and we're just trying to get better each week."

One area that has gotten very good for the Saints is the offensive line. After rushing for 257 yards against South Elgin a week ago, the Saints continued the trend against the Tomcats with 274 yards on the ground.

"It was a mudder game which we like," Saints offensive lineman Mark Lindholm said. "We just tell them we're going to open the holes and they just have to go north and south."

Zajicek (12 carries, 126 yards) and Cory Campbell (9 carries, 77 yards) were the primary recipients of the hard work of offensive linemen like Eric Olstad, Zachary Hueneke and Charles Ratajczak.

"They've jelled over the past five weeks," Fields said. "When the offensive line gets off the ball like they've been doing and our running backs are doing what they've been doing that's going to also open up our passing game."

Quarterback Nolan Possley (7-of-14, 146 yards) connected on touchdown passes to Jess Streidl, Drayton Heather and Tyler Nutting.

"Nolan is a heck of a quarterback and he's probably our best athlete," Fields said. "To get him out there throwing the ball around like he did we're very happy."

On the other side of the ball the Saints had little trouble slowing the speedy East Aurora duo of quarterback Bryan Robinson and running back Tinard Thompson, limiting the Tomcats to 68 total yards.

"We looked at their potential and were concerned with some of their speed," Fields said. "We told them all week that we don't look at records but we punch the time clock and go to work."

St. Charles East (3-2, 3-0) has now beaten East Aurora (0-5, 0-3) in 15 meetings dating back to 1989.