Glenbard North gives repeat performance
Glenbard North continued to make a persuasive case for the effectiveness of good old-fashioned, hard-nosed football on Friday night as the Panthers completed the nonconference portion of their schedule with a 2-0 record courtesy of a 34-8 victory at Plainfield East.
Glenbard North followed the same script it used to beat Oak Park one week earlier-a rock-ribbed defense and an offense that ground the opponent into submission courtesy of a bruising running attack. For the night the Panthers ran the ball 43 times and gained 322 yards, while the defense limited the Bengals to 85 rushing yards on 26 carries. Through two games, Glenbard North has allowed just 144 rushing yards on 56 attempts for a per-carry average of 2.6 yards.
"We knew they had a lot of fast backs so we had to close the outside and stop the sweep, and I think we did a good job of that," said senior linebacker Joe Williams. "I'm proud of how the boys played tonight."
On the other hand Glenbard North's three-headed tailback monster of Evin Natick, Phil Jackson and Devin Harkins combined for 232 yards on 33 carries with 4 touchdowns working behind the all-senior offensive line of Giuseppe Fiduccia, Eric John Mungcal, Quincy Guthrie, Paul Tarsitano and Paul Wisniewski.
"We've got three very good backs in Evan, Phil and Devin and I was very happy with the kids up front tonight," said Glenbard North coach Ryan Wilkens.
The Panthers' first two scores came on short fields following a pair of short Bengals punts into a strong wind. The first covered 40 yards and was capped by Natick's 1-yard plung for a 7-0 lead after one quarter. The second drive covered an identical distance and was climaxed by Jackson's 13-yard run on the first play of the second quarter.
Glenbard North added two more scores in the half, the first a 12-play, 78-yard excursion that Natick closed out with an 11-yard burst before Harkins' 54-yard sprint kicked off a picture-perfect two-minute drill that ended with Mark Ng hooking up with Austin Siperly on a 13-yard score with 44 seconds left and a 28-0 halftime lead.
The defense limited the Bengals to 49 total yards in the first half. Plainfield East also did not run a play from Glenbard North territory until eight minutes remained in the third quarter. That was on the opening drive of the second half when the Bengals advanced to the Panthers 14 before the drive was halted on a failed fourth-down pass. Glenbard North followed that stop with Jackson's 1-yard TD run before Plainfield East erased the shutout with 39 seconds left when Brad Gollinet connected with Kyle Walters on a 43-yard scoring pass.
"I feel really good about our defense after two solid weeks, and overall we played pretty well for the second week in a row," said Wilkens, whose squad opens DuPage Valley Conference play next week at Naperville North.