Kurtz, St. Charles North too fast for Elgin
If the St. Charles North Stars were expecting a ho-hum affair on the football field against Elgin on Friday night as a prelude to homecoming festivities, they were at least partly correct.
The 49-0 final score may have had a ho-hum feel to it, but there was nothing ho-hum about the rushing of North Star tailback Evan Kurtz. The senior kept his impressive start to the season going by scoring four touchdowns to help St. Charles North roll to the easy victory in the Upstate Eight River Division clash.
There was nothing ho-hum about senior linebacker Reece Conroyd, who entered the school record books by tallying the 259th tackle of his career late in the third quarter.
“I was trying not to think about it (the record) because that’s an individual thing and I’m not about the individual, I’m about the team,” Conroyd said.
And there was nothing ho-hum about what Conroyd has in mind for his team this season.
“I’ve been here three years and I have never been in a playoff game,” he said. “That’s the one stat I am worried about.
“It’s awesome to hold a school record and I will enjoy it for now, but I didn’t come in here looking for the four tackles I needed, I came here looking for a win.”
That win was determined early, thanks to Kurtz blasting through and around Elgin Maroon defenders to notch touchdown runs of 17, 4, 9 and 5 yards — all in the first half. It left Kurtz with 11 touchdowns for this season, while tacking on 91 yards for a total of 615 in the North Stars’ first four games.
“We came in knowing we were going to win, but I give props to Elgin because they came in playing hard,” Kurtz said. “But our offensive line just did a great job and opened the holes that allowed me to score those touchdowns.”
St. Charles North (2-2, 1-1) piled up 230 yards rushing and tallied all of its points on the ground as Dylan Hunter ran in from 4 yards out in the first quarter, and Chris Page scored both second-half touchdowns on runs of 24 and 12 yards.
Even with all things being equal, Elgin (0-4, 0-2) was up against it coming into St. Charles. But the Maroons made things worse on themselves when first-year coach Kyle Rohde had to sit several starters through most of the first half for disciplinary reasons.
“We had a lot of guys not playing because of grades, not doing homework or getting detentions,” Rohde said.
“Those guys are not taking care of what they are supposed to and it showed on the field tonight.”
Rohde wants to look forward, rather than back at the circumstances that have led to a goose egg in the win column so far.
“That’s over and we have to get moving in the right direction,” Rohde said.
Elgin managed only three first downs, 40 yards rushing and 13 yards passing as quarterback Ryan Sitter was sacked four times and flushed out of the pocket numerous times.
North Star quarterback Erik Miller had an efficient evening, hitting 9 of 12 passes for 127 yards and rushing for another 37 on four carries.
First-year North Stars coach Rob Pomazak notched his first Upstate Eight win, but knows his team has bigger goals in mind.
“We felt we played really well last week, but it was a hard loss to take (at St. Charles East),” Pomazak said. “We are worried about how well we can play on a daily basis, so it doesn’t matter who we are playing.
“This is a special group of kids and they are very driven,” Pomazak said. “From the moment I got here, we have talked about where we want to be, and we want to be playing when there are no leaves on the trees and we are going to do our best to get there.”