Wheaton Warrenville S. 13, Glenbard North 7

So this is what a defending state football champion does when backed into a corner.

Three times Glenbard North drove inside the Wheaton Warrenville South 15-yard line in the fourth quarter on Friday, poised to score a go-ahead touchdown.

Three times the Tigers turned the Panthers away, and in doing so walked out of Carol Stream with a 13-7 win, their 18th victory in a row.

"For us to survive that game and pull it out is a great credit to our defense," WW South coach Ron Muhitch said. "They're exhausted."

WW South's last stand came with 1:06 to play, as Pat Dansdill broke up Evan Watkins' fourth down pass from the 11 in the end zone.

The Tigers' defense, on the field for two-thirds of the game's plays, also turned Glenbard North over on downs with 3:49 left.

"We love that pressure," said defensive end Philip Traynor. "We knew that the offense wasn't playing too well and we had to step up."

Earlier, a 14-play Glenbard North drive was denied a payoff as Thomas Marsh picked off a pass in the end zone with 10:05 left.

"Our defensive line was getting great pressure, and he (Watkins) was pushed out of the pocket," Marsh said. "I was just watching his eyes, trying to see where he was going to throw the ball. Luckily, I read it correctly."

"They made plays when they had to," Glenbard North coach Ryan Wilkens said, "and we made mistakes at inopportune times."

Glenbard North (2-2, 1-1 DuPage Valley Conference) took an early 7-0 lead, Watkins engineering a 12-play opening drive he capped with a 3-yard run.

The Panthers stuffed WW South in three plays, but on the first play of Glenbard North's next possession Traynor recovered a fumble, setting up the Tigers at the Panthers' 25. Three plays later Francis Adarkwa took in a 3-yard score, making it 7-6.

"For them to score right after that turnover was a huge momentum-turner for us," Wilkens said. "Especially the way we had come out."

WW South (4-0, 2-0) went ahead 13-7 with 4:22 left in the half on Mike Piatkowski's 13-yard touchdown pass to Mike Sloboda.

Glenbard North outgained WW South by almost a 2-1 margin and ran almost twice as many plays. But the Panthers had one first-half drive end in a diving interception by WW South's Patrick Kelly on a tipped pass, and a fumbled snap on fourth-and-short thwarted another drive.

Watkins completed 18 of 31 passes for 223 yards. Adarkwa ran for 95 yards on 21 carries.

"It took a championship effort to pull this out," Muhitch said. "Our defense has been getting better and tonight they played with a lot of spirit and lot of discipline."