Wheaton North puts seeds aside

ROCKFORD - One yard from the first down. Two yards from the sideline. Seventeen yards from the end zone. Twenty seconds on the clock.

It was all there for Zack Smith after he caught a short pass in the flat. Except he had a Wheaton North player draped over his ankle and the Falcon wouldn't let go.

"It's tough to see something that close and just watch it slip away," Smith said after No. 15 Wheaton North upset No. 2-seeded Rockford Boylan 17-13 in the first round of the Class 7A football playoffs Saturday. "That's how the whole game went."

Keeping Smith inbounds forced Boylan (9-1) to throw a desperation fourth-down pass at the buzzer that fell incomplete.

Boylan had seemed dead a minute earlier, taking over at its own 25 with 1:22 left and no timeouts, but the Titans gained new life when Michael Morman threw a 38-yard pass to Steve Thomas on third-and-10. The Titans got to the 20 with 23 seconds left but got off only two plays from there as 22 seconds ran off the clock when Smith was trapped inbounds.

That made it a third consecutive fantastic finish for Wheaton North (6-4), which needed to score with 20 seconds left and win in double overtime in its last two games just to make the playoffs.

"We've got a lot of confidence now even if we're down late in the game that we can come back," junior quarterback Reece Butler said.

Butler was the biggest reason why the Falcons won their first playoff game in seven years. He completed 13 of 19 passes for 140 yards, including twin 25-yard touchdowns, and he also ran 15 times for 87 yards.

Butler's 25-yard pass to Shaniel Katariwala put the Falcons ahead 10-6 in the third quarter, but Boylan's Chris Miller returned the ensuing kickoff 61 yards and Steve Thomas scored on a 4-yard run on fourth down to put Boylan back up 13-10.

Thomas also scored Boylan's first touchdown, on an 11-yard run set up by a 13-yard pass on fourth-and-8.

Wheaton North's defense held Boylan to 2 of 10 on third down until late in the fourth quarter. Coach Joe Wardynski said the Falcons hadn't been good on third-down defense most of the year but spent all week practicing it.

"Perhaps we have to practice fourth-down plays more than third-down plays," Wardynski said. "Third down, we did all right, but fourth downs not so good."

Fourth down also wasn't kind to the Falcons on offense. MeKael Wesley was stuffed for no gain on fourth-and-3 from the 15 to leave Wheaton North trailing 13-10 early in the fourth quarter. But moments later Richard Finley returned a punt 30 yards to the Boylan 34 and two plays later Butler hit Finley for the go-ahead 25-yard touchdown.

Twice Boylan threatened after that but lost a fumble at the Falcons' 27 and then got stopped at the 17 on downs in the final seconds.

"They are not 9-0 for nothing," Wardynski said. "They battled their hearts out for four quarters."

But so did the Falcons, who now move on to the second round for the first time since they reached the quarterfinals in 2002.

"This feels awesome," Butler said.

"This is a huge win for our program," Wardynski said. "The kids are trying to put us back on the map. They've been very resilient. Wheaton North has been a 5-4 team for the last several years and hasn't been able to advance past the first round of the playoffs. To get a win against a good 9-0 team is huge for our program."