St. Charles North wins shootout over Streamwood

An 81-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage is a tough pace for an offense to keep.

You can't say St. Charles North and Streamwood didn't try.

The North Stars scored touchdowns on their first five second-half possessions, just one a slew of staggering offensive statistics for both teams in St. Charles North's 56-42 homecoming victory.

Perhaps most remarkably, the 42 points represented a season low St. Charles North (2-2, 1-0) has allowed. The North Stars have given up 52, 49, 49 and 42 points in their four games - the 42 points Friday to a Streamwood team that scored 2 last week against Elgin.

Or to put it another way, in order to have that .500 record the North Stars had to score 62 points to beat McHenry and now 56 to hold off Streamwood (1-3, 0-2).

"It's good to win but you just can't keep doing this," St. Charles North coach Mark Gould said. "We have to find something to shore up a little bit."

The list of offensive stars was - not surprisingly - extensive.

• Dirk Schmitt, St. Charles North's starting fullback, found the end zone three different ways. All three of his touchdowns came in the third quarter when the North Stars outscored the Sabres 28-14 to break open a 21-21 halftime time.

Schmitt's first touchdown came on a 52-yard run on the second play from scrimmage in the second half.

He followed by scoring on a 9-yard screen pass from quarterback Matt Shiltz that made it 35-21, then capped his electric third quarter with a 72-yard kickoff return.

"He gets mad," Gould said. "He plays harder and harder as the game goes on especially when he gets mad. He's very tenacious. I wish we had 60 of them."

Schmitt ran for 98 yards, second on St. Charles North to Ben Hodges' 113. After completing 8 of 11 passes in the first half, the North Stars threw the ball just twice in the second half.

"The offensive line did a heck of a job and was getting great push," Schmitt said. "We talked (at halftime) about how we're going to just pound the ball and rack up the time (of possession)."

• Shiltz, who entered the game with 9 touchdown passes, continued his fine play at quarterback going 9 of 13 for 123 yards, 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. He also ran for 2 touchdowns.

Shiltz is now just 2 passing touchdowns away from the school record.

•Jake Bergren, last year's starting quarterback, made his first appearance after being sidelined with a fractured left hand.

Bergren played some safety in the first half but made his biggest impact on offense, catching a 19-yard touchdown from Shiltz in the second quarter and breaking a 63-yard touchdown run down the right sideline in the third quarter.

"He scored a couple touchdowns, got the kids excited," said Gould, adding the North Stars had 6 to 8 plays for Bergren Friday and will expand that, and his defensive role, next week. "They know when the ball is in his hands he's explosive. It certainly helps (having him back)."

Streamwood, who outgained St. Charles North in total yards 422-386, had plenty of stars of its own.

•Quarterback Dalton Lundeen marched his team up and down the field, completing 16 of 30 passes for 212 yards and 3 touchdowns.

"We put some points up but left the doors open on the other side," Streamwood coach Cal Cummins said.

•Running back Alex Morrow opened the game with an 81-yard burst up the middle. He was barely touched on his way to the end zone.

Williams finished with 168 yards on 19 carries and added a 31-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

"There's no question coming into the year we thought we had some people who could make plays as receivers or runners," Cummins said. "They are starting to show that ability to make plays happen."

•Wide receiver Blake Holder was another one of those playmakers with 3 touchdown receptions. Two came on slants from 11 and 14 yards out and the final one on a 32-yard fly pattern in the fourth quarter. That came with 9:13 remaining and turned out to be the final points in the shootout. St. Charles North's Gage Cantrell intercepted a pass to halt a Streamwood drive that could have trimmed the North Stars' lead to one possession.

The Sabres also could have had a couple more scores on kickoff returns if not for North Stars kicker Alec Eickert twice making touchdown-saving tackles in the open field. Eickert was busy on extra points, combining with Streamwood's Nick McGuiggan to go a perfect 14-for-14 on PATs.

"The kids were really excited about it (Eickert's tackles) because when he came out he didn't want anything to do with tackling but he found out you had to," Gould said.