St. Charles North looking forward to fresh start

Anything can happen.

Like in 2004. Rolling Meadows came into St. Charles North for a first-round Class 7A playoff game bearing a 5-4 record, three games off the North Stars' 8-1 pace. Rolling Meadows won that one and three other playoff games before losing in the state semifinals to eventual champion Libertyville.

St. Charles North coach Mark Gould brought up Rolling Meadows as an example of the possibilities inherent in the playoffs. Entering the 7A field off successive losses that put a damper on a 6-1 start, the North Stars could use a fresh start.

"The whole idea is the second season," Gould said Wednesday. "You can put the past behind you, you don't let it bring you down negatively. Everybody's zero-zero, the records don't mean a lot. We just have to go out and play better."

It's not like No. 12 seed St. Charles North (6-3) is as far from its first-round foe, No. 5 seed South Elgin (7-2), as the seeds appear to indicate. (South Elgin, 4-2 in the Upstate Eight, benefited from 52 playoff points to vault past 6-0 St. Charles East, which drew the No. 8 seed in the same bracket despite beating the Storm.)

In its first playoff season the host Storm, coached by veteran Dale Schabert on a fast track Saturday at Streamwood's Millennium Field, needed a David Reisner field goal in overtime to edge St. Charles North, which began the North Stars' season-ending mini-slide. St. Charles East concluded it, another mud-bowl decided by kickers in overtime, 14-13.

Coincidentally, as St. Charles East coach Mike Fields blamed his team's offensive lull to "the little things," it's the same stuff that's bitten the North Stars. Little things, like penalties that have brought back touchdowns in both the last two games, became big.

One key, Gould said, is "keeping their confidence up and continue working on cutting down mistakes."

St. Charles North has the personnel to regain that confidence. In edition to big-play receiver Jeff Stolzenburg and a healthy Josh Mikes, who each caught Jake Bergren touchdown passes last week, Bergren, Dirk Schmitt, Jordan Huxtable and Ben Hodges provide an array of running options.

The task for defensive linemen Brian Pedersen and Trevor Lilovich and linebacker J.J. Weaver, who leads St. Charles North with 9 sacks, will be to hassle South Elgin quarterback John Menken, and for defensive backs Connor Mohs and Pat Killeen and far-ranging linebacker Dom Imbordino to do the same to big-play receivers Jake Kumerow and Domico Failla.

Then anything can happen.

"I think we're really looking forward to it," Gould said. "It's been a tough couple of weeks, that's for sure. I think the kids really believe it's a second season, and they want to make amends."