Naperville N. defense a hit against St. Charles E.

The hard-hitting Huskies are back.

One week after giving up 4 touchdowns in a 29-28 victory over Neuqua Valley, Naperville North's defense came to play Friday night in St. Charles.

Anchored by 6-foot-2, 240-pound Boston College-bound middle linebacker Nick Lifka, defensive lineman Brett Jones and defensive back Dan Pinkerton, the Huskies (2-0) recorded 3 sacks and forced a pair of fumbles on their way to a 17-0 nonconference triumph over St. Charles East (0-2).

"We like to talk about playing Huskies defensive football," said Naperville North coach Sean Drendel. "We compliment the kids about hard hits and last week I think we had one. We normally have more than five (per game).

"I think one is the lowest total we've ever had so we talked to the kids about that and they took it to heart. There definitely was some hitting going on tonight."

Lifka, who had 3 of his team's 7 tackles for negative yards, admittedly entered the game with an attitude change of sorts.

"We had a chip on our shoulders from last week," said Lifka. "We were prepared for a spread offense last week and they ran it down our throats. We didn't take too kindly to that."

After a scoreless first half that included a botched fake punt by the Saints as well as a red-zone fumble and blocked field-goal attempt by the Huskies, Naperville North set itself up for the game's first score with a special teams gem.

Pinkerton charged through the line to block Kevin Russell's punt attempt, while teammate Matt Sagen pounced on the loose ball inside the Saints' 7.

That set up Ron Coluzzi's 25-yard field goal that gave the Huskies a 3-0 lead with 8:49 left in the third quarter.

Late in the quarter, the Huskies finally mounted a 5-play, 74-yard scoring drive capped by Matt LaCosse's 10-yard TD pass to Dan Puknitas to make it 10-0.

St. Charles East, which had starting quarterback Charlie Fisher sidelined to an apparent hip injury late in the third quarter, also lost the services of backup quarterback Dean Bowen to an apparent broken arm during a drive early in the fourth quarter.

Led by senior tailback Mike Brown (35 carries, 136 yards), the Saints drove inside the Huskies' 10 before junior linebacker Nick Krejci recovered a fumble with 6:33 remaining.

"Offensively, we had some chances but again we shot ourselves in the foot," Saints coach Mike Fields said about his team's 8 penalties and 2 turnovers. "We'd get a first-and-10 and then all of sudden have two penalties and it's first-and-20.

"They were our own mental mistakes."

Three plays later, Puknitas' 51-yard TD run with 5:43 left sealed the decision.

"Our offense didn't seem to want it as much as it did last week but our defense did," said Drendel. "Last week, they (offense) bailed us out and this time we bailed them out."

The Saints, on the other hand, showed marked defensive improvement from their 56-7 season-opening loss to Carmel.

Junior Tim Leibforth recovered a fumble and blocked a punt, while junior linebacker John Kelley forced a fumble that was pounced on by sophomore linebacker Joe Hoscheit.

"I thought those guys did a phenomenal job," Fields said of his defensive unit. "Our pride was dented last week but it wasn't broken. The kids responded and had a great week of practice and it showed tonight.

"The score was not indicative of how close this game was."