St. Charles North's defense awaits Glenbard West challenge

Going up against an 11-0 Glenbard West team in the Class 7A quarterfinals certainly could make some teams nervous.

Especially when you start trying to gameplan how to slow a Hilltoppers team that has scored 397 points in those 11 wins, an average of 36 a game.

Glenbard West has not just been explosive, it has been remarkably consistent. No team has held the Hilltoppers to fewer than 27 points yet this year.

Luckily for St. Charles North, the North Stars defense also has been up to the task all season.

Other than a 35-point game by Waubonsie Valley in Week 4, the North Stars haven't allowed more than 16 points in a game.

Something will have to give when St. Charles North and Glenbard West take the field at 1 p.m. Saturday in Glen Ellyn.

"Glenbard West, they are a great team but again why not us?" said one of the leaders on that St. Charles North defense, safety Conner Mohs. "We have a shot. Who is anyone to say we can't do it?"

St. Charles North's defense sure stepped up Friday, halting Elk Grove on three fourth-quarter drives while clinging to a 20-14 lead. That turned out to be the final score, with one of the touchdowns coming when Elk Grove took over at the North Stars' 6-yard line.

"Not too many teams could hold this team to 14 points," St. Charles North coach Mark Gould said. "They (the defense) did a great job. They played really inspired, really aggressive."

The North Stars put the final nail in Elk Grove's coffin when Dom Imbordino intercepted a pass in the end zone in the final minute. Through the regular season, Imbordino's 6 pass deflections led the squad, while Spencer Swarts had a team-high 68 tackles, just ahead of J.J. Weaver's 64.

"We all played a phenomenal game (against Elk Grove) and we all had to play as a team to win," Imbordino said. "It's just a great feeling. The main thing was to get pressure on the quarterback. We had to make sure he didn't have time to throw."

Linebackers Swarts and Weaver helped apply that pressure and will need to do that for 48 minutes at Glenbard West.

So far in the playoffs, the North Stars have allowed 30 points, and that came after a stretch of just 49 points given up in the final five weeks of the regular season.

"We all came together as a defense," Swarts said. "This group has what it takes and we knew that and that we have to come together as a whole. We knew where we're going to get the pressure and how to come at (the Elk Grove quarterback). We just wanted it more in the end."

The defense got it done two extra times in the fourth quarter Friday after a fumble on a punt and a fumble by the North Stars offense gave Elk Grove two extra cracks at the possible game-winning touchdown. Both times the North Stars' defense picked up their teammates.

"This entire year our defense preaches overcoming adversity, and overcoming things that weren't expected to happen to us," Swarts said. "If the offense fumbles in the last minute of the game then it is the defense's job to get out and get it done and do our job."

The North Stars have made their first trip to the quarterfinals after a disappointing end to the regular season that saw them lose by 3 points to South Elgin and 1 to St. Charles East in the final two weeks.

Instead of getting down, the North Stars have used that frustration to their advantage in the postseason.

"The last two games of the regular season, those were two tough losses, very close at the end of the game and we knew what doesn't kill us makes us stronger," Swarts said. "At the beginning of the year we knew we had something great. At the end of the year we knew we still had that greatness and we just needed to get it done."

The North Stars start a senior-dominated defense, and that experience helps.

"Our team has played together for four years now and we've got a lot of seniors that have stepped up," linebacker Matthew Scanlon said.

Like his teammates, Mohs, who moved to St. Charles from Arkansas his freshman year, has bought into the team's motto of "Why not us?"

It's worked so far, and Saturday they get a chance to see how they stack up with one of the state's best.

"The fact that North has never made it this far and why not us is what we keep saying," Mohs said. "The friendships we have made are unbelievable. We had a rocky year with the last two losses, but we just never give up."