LaCosse, Naperville North edge Neuqua Valley
On Naperville North's final two plays, Matt LaCosse simply took a knee.
He earned the break.
The University of Minnesota-bound senior quarterback rushed for 263 yards and 3 touchdowns while rallying his football team to Friday's 29-28 season-opening win over visiting Neuqua Valley.
Naperville North ran the ball on 77 of its 87 plays - 36 carries by LaCosse - for 475 yards. Much of the damage came in the second half as the Huskies' offensive line wore down Neuqua Valley's defense.
"We just got mad and decided to run it down their throats," LaCosse said. "We just played harder in the second half."
The Wildcats came back from a 9-point third-quarter deficit, taking a 28-23 lead early in the fourth quarter on a 63-yard fumble return by sophomore Sam Norgaard.
LaCosse put Naperville North ahead to stay on a 25-yard touchdown run with six minutes, 56 seconds left in the game.
After forcing a three-and-out from Neuqua Valley, the Huskies ground out three first downs to drain the clock and give Sean Drendel a victory in his debut game as head coach.
"A win's a win, and we're content with a win right now," Drendel said. "It was a good win for our kids. Like I tell them all the time, 'It's your team, it's not my team,' and they've taken that to heart."
The lead changed hands five times, although it looked like Naperville North had seized control after Antonio Owens scored on an 11-yard run coming out of halftime and LaCosse followed it up with a 50-yard touchdown run.
The 23-14 lead, however, wasn't safe. Neuqua Valley answered with a 2-yard touchdown run by Trent Snyder, who rushed for 144 of his team's 236 rushing yards and scored three times. Then the Wildcats stunned the crowd when Norgaard emerged from a pile and returned a fumble for the go-ahead score.
But with nearly 10 minutes remaining, the Wildcats couldn't hold its 28-23 lead by fending off Naperville North's pounding run game.
"Momentum always plays a part in every game, and certainly tonight we got it on our side," said Neuqua Valley coach Bryan Wells. "But they did a nice job responding. They kind of got our defense gassed, and that didn't help us at all."
LaCosse opened the scoring with a 5-yard touchdown run. Snyder tied it with a 50-yard first-quarter run and put the Wildcats ahead 14-7 midway through the second quarter with a 31-yard run. Naperville North's Ron Coluzzi made it 14-10 at the half with a 28-yard field goal.
"We ran about 90 plays, so we definitely controlled the ball," said Huskies right guard Soern Osborne. "We played pretty well, I thought, on the offensive side of the ball."