St. Charles North rallies to beat Batavia

Eight is not enough for St. Charles North.

It's not a done deal yet. The North Stars still must beat their crosstown rival in Week 9 to extend their streak of eight straight playoff appearances but they took a huge step Friday night in Batavia.

St. Charles North came into Bulldog Stadium on Batavia's senior night and won 38-28, breaking open a 21-21 tie early in the fourth quarter with 17 straight points.

"You couldn't even think about the next one even though it's a rivalry (with St. Charles East), because it's do or die," said coach Mark Gould, whose North Stars improved to 4-4 overall, 3-2 in the Upstate Eight Conference's River Division.

"I was worried how the kids were going to come out," he said. "They were loose all week in practice, which can be good and can be bad. We came out, we got down 7-0 early, answered, and just kept battling."

Senior Jake Bergren did it all. He ran for a 77-yard touchdown, threw a touchdown pass to Dirk Schmitt and, on defense, both caused and recovered fumbles by Batavia (4-4, 3-2) leading to St. Charles North points.

"There was a lot riding on this game, Batavia and us," said Bergren, who has helped solidify St. Charles North's defense since his return in Week 4 from a broken hand. "Our playoff berth was riding on this game. The connotation was huge. The surrounding events were gigantic, definitely a big game."

It looked gigantic for Batavia when David Peskind returned the opening kick 72 yards, giving the Bulldogs a short porch from where quarterback Noel Gaspari tossed a 10-yard touchdown pass to Joe Sortino just 1:11 into the game.

The Bulldogs looked like they were going in again late in the first quarter. After a pass completion at St. Charles North's 8-yard line, Bergren ripped the ball out of the Batavia receiver's hands. Five plays later Bergren straight-armed his way 77 yards for a touchdown that with Alec Eickert's kick tied the score 7-7 at 11:44 of the second quarter.

The race was on. Bergren, stepping in for quarterback Matt Shiltz for one play amid a long drive, tossed a 21-yard touchdown pass to fullback Dirk Schmitt, chugging out of the backfield.

Emund Kabba answered for Batavia with an 11-yard draw play for a touchdown, set up by Jake Benner's interception, to send the teams into halftime tied 14-14.

That wasn't quite good enough for Batavia.

"Our defense played very well early," said Bulldogs coach Mike Gaspari, "and we turned the ball over once down here in the red zone, of the north end zone, and ran out of downs on another series. It could have been 21-0 to start the game in the first quarter and it's a whole different night."

Shiltz, throwing completions of 27 and 39 yards to Josh Mikes on a third-quarter drive, saw Andrew Elliott open in the middle on a play-action pass for a touchdown and 21-14 lead.

Batavia stormed back. It got great field position on a botched North Stars punt, and Sortino caught his second touchdown pass, a 7-yarder from Gaspari that made the score 21-21 at 9:10 of the fourth quarter.

Until Kabba scored on a 14-yard run with 40.4 seconds left to play, though, it was all St. Charles North thereafter.

Shiltz, who somehow threw to Mikes for 16 yards while in the grasp on third-and-7, capped a 10-play drive with his second touchdown strike to Elliott, a deep slant from 17 yards out.

"We knew at halftime the type of coverage they were playing and the way the safeties were coming up on the run that we were going to be able to hopefully get some stuff over the top, and that's what ended up happening," Elliott said.

St. Charles North then capitalized on Batavia fumbles on successive possessions in the last five minutes. Eickert nailed a 20-yard field goal and Ben Hodges ran 20 yards to score for a 38-21 lead with 2:12 left after recoveries by Pat McGushin and Brian Sullivan.

Now, St. Charles North and Batavia each need a Week 9 win to play in Week 10.

"We play (at Streamwood) on a Saturday but that's not going to change anything even though it's in the morning," said Batavia defensive lineman Alec Lyons, who had 3 sacks. "But we're still going to come out there with the mentality to win."