Scouting St. Charles North @ South Elgin

St. Charles North (6-1, 4-1) at South Elgin (5-2, 2-2)

Game time 7:30 p.m. today

Last year St. Charles North 35, South Elgin 24.

Last week St. Charles North 31, Neuqua Valley 5; Lake Park 20, South Elgin 15.

Outlook St. Charles North coach Mark Gould said, "We're feeling pretty confident." Why not? The North Stars clinched their eighth straight playoff berth. They held 600-yard rusher Joey Ippolito to 8 yards on 11 carries last week, and limited Neuqua Valley to 98 yards overall and 8-of-28 passing with interceptions by linebackers J.J. Weaver and Ben Dvorak and defensive end Brian Pedersen. Couldn't all have been the choppy turf, because the North Stars themselves ran for 220 yards. Quarterback Jake Bergren made good decisions and scored a great ground game with 100 yards rushing and 2 touchdown runs; both Ben Hodges and Dirk Schmitt ground it out against what is a pretty good Neuqua 3-5 defense. Granted, St. Charles North's 25 playoff points are not tearing it up, but this looks to be a team jelling at the right time. These last two games will provide a more realistic angle on the North Stars' abilities, since they're 1-1 against teams above .500 (loss to 4-3 Waubonsie Valley, win over 4-3 Larkin). Veteran coach Dale Schabert's South Elgin squad had a shot at knocking off Upstate Eight Conference co-leader Lake Park. Playing with heavy hearts after the wake for the brother of Storm linebacker Justin Wright, they threatened, though 7 of those points came off defensive back Robbie Green's 103-yard (!) interception return in the last five minutes. Skating around on the slippery crown of Lake Park's grass field, Storm quarterback John Menken tossed a 25-yard touchdown pass to Jake Kumerow, but otherwise Menken and top back Brad Birchfield mustered only 24 yards on 22 carries between them. St. Charles North will draw a bead on Menken, the 6-foot-4 Kumerow and another big-play 6-4 wideout, Domico Failla. Defensively, Jared Johnson is South Elgin's Connor Mohs, willing to stick his neck in there to make tackles, and linebacker Sean Kolber is a three-year starter. "They have good athletes," said the North Stars' Gould.

Next week St. Charles North at St. Charles East (5-2, 5-0), Oct. 23; South Elgin at Larkin (4-3, 1-3), Oct. 23.