Naperville Central earns respect in defeat

Drawing Mt. Carmel for a first-round playoff assignment is cause for any football team to do a collective "uh-oh."

Naperville Central was anything but an easy out.

The No. 11 seed Redhawks were within a touchdown at halftime of Friday's Class 8A playoff game but wore down over fourth quarters in a 42-21 loss to the No. 6 Caravan at Chicago's Gately Stadium.

"We went down fighting," Naperville Central coach Mike Stine said, "and I'm proud of the kids. That's a tough task. There probably wasn't any tougher draw than you could get."

Naperville Central (6-4), already perhaps outmanned against an 8-2 Mt. Carmel team that hasn't lost since Week 4 against St. Rita, was further hamstrung by injuries in the first half. Starting halfback Nick Kukuc and wide receiver Mike Oles went down with ankle injuries, and safety Brian Kelly left with a bad shoulder.

Still, the Redhawks went into halftime down only 21-14 as quarterback Nick Linne found Antwon Harris with a 7-yard shuffle pass for a touchdown with 44 seconds left in the second quarter. Linne, who completed 17 of 36 passes for 266 yards, earlier found Riley O'Toole for a 34-yard score.

But Mt. Carmel's relentless option offense took its toll.

The Caravan scored on three straight drives in the second half. Junior running back Milton Greer's 40-yard touchdown run with 7:42 left in the third made it 28-14. The Caravan went 13 plays on its next drive, a 14-yard Greer run setting up Jordan Lynch's 1-yard keeper for a score and 35-14 game. Lynch later added a 21-yard touchdown pass to K.J. Picard.

"We tried to keep the game as close as we could," Stine said, "get it into the fourth quarter and have a chance to make a play. But I think as the game wore on they wore us down. They were bigger than we were on both sides of the ball."

Greer ran for 201 yards on 22 carries with 3 touchdowns. No bigger score came midway through the second quarter of a tie game. He alertly scooped up fellow back Byron Stanford's fumble and went 15 yards untouched for a touchdown while the Naperville Central defense froze expecting a whistle to blow.

"Everybody didn't think it was a fumble," Greer said. "I saw the ball on the ground, picked it up and ran. I thought the play was over. I told Byron the touchdown was his - but he fumbled so I got it."

"That's kids playing with their head on a swivel," Mt. Carmel coach Frank Lenti said. "We tell them to play hard and play smart. That was smart."

Lenti knew his team was in for a battle against a DuPage Valley Conference opponent. Last year a four-loss Glenbard North team came into Gately and stunned the Caravan in the Class 8A semifinals. The year before Wheaton Warrenville South beat Mt. Carmel in the 8A final.

"Playing that conference is the same as playing in our own conference," Lenti said. "That's the kind of respect our kids have for those guys. They were a very good 6-3 team."