St. Charles East plays spoiler
With St. Charles North looking to extend its playoff streak to nine years, instead it was St. Charles East that gave the North Stars the boot at the 10th annual Cross-town Classic Friday night at North.
Junior kicker Danny Muzzalupo drilled three field goals, the final one a 38-yarder with 4:02 remaining, to give the Saints a 16-14 upset and deny the North Stars a playoff berth.
St. Charles North (4-5, 3-3) had two chances in the final four minutes, the first one stalled on downs and the second ended with a missed 48-yard field goal with 4 seconds left.
St. Charles East (3-6, 2-4) started its celebration as the kick came up short, a group of seniors and underclassmen who didn't quit after an 0-5 start and instead finished winning three of their last four.
"I think this was our best game of the year all the way around," said senior running back Mike Brown, who carried 28 times for 204 yards before leaving the game in the fourth quarter.
"It was a great way for us seniors to go off and every other lowerclassman will start their off-season on a great foot. It's just a great feeling right now."
The North Stars also rebounded from a rough 2-4 start a year after they reached the state quarterfinals only to come up one win short of the playoffs.
"There's nothing harder, you come out, it's your rivals, you are playing for the key to the city and put your playoff berth on the line, it's just like losing everything basically," St. Charles North defensive lineman Vincent Fricke said.
St. Charles East won its third straight and sixth in the last seven meetings against the North Stars to take a 7-4 lead in the series. You can bet 2010 will be remembered in this young but exciting rivalry that already has seen its share of overtimes, shootouts, and outcomes not to mention seasons riding on the final drive.
"Another East-North game, comes right down to the end, back and forth," North Stars coach Mark Gould said. "I thought East played very well. They made some big plays."
None bigger than Muzzalupo's three field goals. After connecting from 38 yards and 26 yards earlier (and missing from 35 and 42), Muzzalupo drove what proved to be the game-winner into the wind, low but splitting the uprights.
After playing soccer the past two years before suffering an injury that made it hard for him to run the field, Muzzalupo switched to football. In addition to his three field goals Gould complimented his pinpoint kickoffs that never allowed the North Stars good field position.
"Danny, I feel so good for him because this will really catapult him for the off-season," Saints coach Mike Fields said.
Fields also had plenty of good things to say about Brown, who ran for 105 yards in the first half and 99 in the second. Brown and the Saints proved on the opening drive they would be able to move the ball, even though the 14-play march ended with no points.
With starting quarterback Charlie Fisher, sidelined most of the year, the Saints showed how their season might have gone differently if not for bad luck. He completed 7 of 10 passes for 88 yards, ran for 31 yards and helped keep the chains moving with 19 first downs.
Brown did much of the heaving lifting with his 204 rushing yards. He did get banged up and the Saints coaches would not let him go back in the game late.
"What a tough kid," Fields said. "He kept telling me, 'I can go' and I had to tell him literally 'Michael we're taking your helmet from you because you are done,'" Fields said.
Brown was just one of the players to leave in a physical matchup. The Saints also lost Zach Zajicek (hip) in the first half while Ben Hodges left for the North Stars.
In the third quarter, St. Charles North's Jake Bergren who missed the first three games with a broken throwing hand saw his season end the same way it began when he injured his right ankle at the end of a 9-yard run. He did not return.
The North Stars trailed 10-7 at that point midway through the third quarter. They had tied the game 7-7 at halftime on a furious 80-yard, 5-play drive in just 25 seconds, capped by a Matt Shiltz to Josh Mikes 36-yard touchdown pass with just 3 seconds left before halftime.
The Saints grabbed a 7-0 lead when Carter Reading scored from 5 yards out at the end of an 89-yard drive kept alive by two Fisher third-down completions to Evan France and Joe Hoscheit,
St. Charles North took its first lead of the game late in the third quarter. After the Saints' only turnover, a fumble recovered by Fricke, Gould went for a quick strike and Shiltz delivered his second touchdown pass, a 38-yarder over the top to Andrew Elliott.
Down 14-10, Fields decided against going for a go-ahead touchdown on 4th-and-goal from the 9 with 10 minutes left in the game. The move paid off when Muzzalupo drilled a 26-yard field goal to trim the lead to 14-13, then the Saints defense held.
With Brown on the sidelines, the Saints didn't move the ball quite as easily and faced a fourth-and-4. Hoscheit and Fields they each gave the other one credit for the call pulled off a 21-yard run on a fake punt by Hoscheit that set up Muzzalupo's game-winning field goal.
"It was a risky call by coach but they lined up inside so the outside was wide open," Hoscheit said.
After getting stopped on downs at their 39-yard line and just 1:06 left, the North Stars got new life when the Saints bobbled a snap on a punt giving the North Stars first down at the Saints' 39 with 22.9 seconds and no timeouts left.
An 8-yad scramble and two incompletions left St. Charles North at the 31, which proved to be too far away for the potential game-winning field goal.
"Our season, all the things we did wrong, all the losses, everything we did wrong, you don't remember it, you just remember this game," Fisher said. "This is what made our season."