It's St. Charles North's night

St. Charles North senior linebacker Dominic Imbordino could not have picked a better time for his first varsity pick.

Elk Grove was on the verge of wiping out a 6-point deficit with third-and-goal at the 5 and less than a minute left in Friday night's Class 7A second-round playoff football game in St. Charles.

That's when Imbordino suddenly found himself locked in a 1-on-1 battle in the corner of the end zone with Elk Grove senior receiver Matt McEnery, who had caught 12 passes for 119 yards.

Both players got hands on Nick Meyer's pass but Imbordino ultimately came down with it to preserve a 20-14 victory and send the 12th-seeded North Stars (8-3) to the state quarterfinals for the first time in history.

"It's awesome - I don't even know how to explain it," Imbordino said after the North Stars' historic victory. "It's an amazing feeling and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world."

Jake Bergren threw 2 touchdown passes to Jeff Stolzenburg and Dirk Schmitt had the go-ahead 4-yard touchdown run with 8:34 to play for the North Stars, who had won only one postseason game before this year. They'll be on the road next week against the winner of today's 1 p.m. game with top-seeded Glenbard West (10-0) at No. 9 Rockton Hononegah (8-2).

Meyer threw touchdown passes of 12 yards to McEnery and 4 yards to junior Joey Bishoff as No. 13 Elk Grove (7-4) saw a breakthrough season end as it matched its win total for the previous four seasons.

"It's a heck of a way to end a football game and a season," said Meyer, who was 17-for-27 for 167 yards. "I'd like to come away with a touchdown.

"I felt like I could just throw it up there and (McEnery) would make a play on it. (Imbordino) made a great play."

Elk Grove got one last shot when senior linebacker Brett Lesniak recovered a fumble at his 42 with 3:51 left. Meyer completed four straight passes - including a leaping 24-yard grab by Bishoff on third-and-14 and a diving 14-yard catch by McEnery - and had a pair of 2-yard runs to set up the decisive play.

Imbordino had a feeling the ball was coming his way.

"I heard the 'ball' call and saw him looking back and looking up and I instantly turned," Imbordino said. "He hit the ball and I hit the ball and I caught it as I was falling back."

Imbordino was also part of the North Stars' linebacking crew led by Spencer Swarts (3 sacks) and J.J. Weaver (1 sack, 1 tackle for loss) that held the dangerous Meyer to 24 yards rushing on 22 carries.

"I thought our linebackers did as good of a job on him as anyone did this year," said St. Charles North coach Mark Gould.

"Nick has done an unbelievable job all year," said first-year Elk Grove coach Brian Doll, "but we've never seen that much pressure brought off the edge."

Brandon Datavs' alert pickup of a punt into the wind which went for minus-1 yard and 16-yard return to the North Stars' 5 set up Meyer's tiebreaking third-quarter touchdown pass to Bishoff.

But the North Stars came right back and marched 83 yards in 12 plays and 6:26 behind Matt Mautone, Samuel Reese, C.J. Van Petten, Joseph Larsen and Ryan Brown. Bergren hit Stolzenburg to cut the deficit to 14-13.

After a three-and-out, Schmitt capped a 58-yard drive and Gould elected to have Cory Harmon kick the extra point to make sure Elk Grove would also have to get a touchdown and extra point to retake the lead.

"We knew there would be a big play coming up," Schmitt said of Imbordino's interception. "These guys are a good, good group."

One which now has taken the North Stars' program to its greatest heights.