Victory smells sweet to Glenbard North
The play was so new that it still had that new-play smell to it.
Glenbard North, down 19-13 to host Naperville North on Friday night, was 1:11 away from going 1-3 on the season. But it was driving deep into Huskies territory.
Out came the halfback pass for the second time in the game. Jace James connected with Luke Siperly for a 21-yard touchdown toss. The extra point by Steve Adamatis was good, and the Panthers had the lead for the first time in the game.
Naperville North made the most of its ensuing drive, but time ran out and Glenbard North (2-2) prevailed 20-19.
“We tried the halfback pass for the first time this week in practice,” James said. “We came out flat and knew we had to beat these guys with this being the first DVC game.”
Technically, this was the first DuPage Valley Conference game. But with the league in flux being down two schools this season and the three District 204 schools not arriving until the 2015-16 school year, DVC teams are playing a league foe twice to help fill out the schedule.
Friday's result does not count in the league standings. The Week 9 rematch in Carol Stream is a conference game.
The Huskies (2-2) were the better team in the first half, leading 13-0 at intermission and taking advantage of two Glenbard North turnovers and converting them into 10 of those points.
The Panthers' first drive of the game made good progress into Naperville North territory before stalling out after eating up just less than seven minutes of the first quarter.
Glenbard North had to punt and it was blocked in a crowd of players, with Naperville North's Chris Zhang recovering the ball.
On the second play of the ensuing drive, Huskies quarterback Chris Gajcak found D'Angelo Hyshaw for a 25-yard TD pass with 1:58 left in the opening quarter.
Naperville North added field goals of 22 and 36 yards by Milan Dosen to close out its first-half scoring.
The Panthers had just 50 yards of total offense in the first half and knew things had to change.
Devion Hodges had missed most of the previous week's win over Chicago Brooks with a badly sprained ankle. But he came through big in the second half, gaining most of his 147 yards during that time. And he scored on a 7-yard run early in the third quarter to get his team on the scoreboard.
“We just wanted to establish the ground game so we could do other things,” Hodges said.
After Gajcak ran for a 5-yard TD for what would be Naperville North's final points of the night, Hodges did one of those things. The Panthers tried their first halfback pass, and Hodges found James for a 27-yard score with just four seconds left in the third quarter.
“(Glenbard North) executed well and they made their plays down the stretch and we didn't,” said Naperville North coach Sean Drendel. “We played with heart and passion. I'm happy where the team is headed after last week's loss.”