McHenry 20, St. Charles North 13
Mistakes proved to be too much to overcome for the St. Charles North football team in its home opener Friday against nonconference McHenry.
The North Stars committed 4 turnovers and were flagged for 10 penalties and 80 yards in a 20-13 loss to the Warriors.
"Mistakes just killed us," North Stars coach Mark Gould said. "Whether penalties, dropped passes, fumbles, boy, I guess you could go on and on. I'm not sure. There was off-sides on a kickoff; it was ridiculous."
Still with all the mistakes, the North Stars had a chance to tie or win the game in the final half minute.
"It was just back and forth and it was kind of like who was going to make the last big play," Warriors coach Tim Beagle said. "I think and we must of because we ended up winning. They could've made the last big play and they would've won so it was a great game back and forth."
McHenry (2-0) committed its lone turnover of the game on a fumble with 21.3 seconds remaining. That gave the North Stars the ball on the Warriors' 44-yard line.
Unfortunately for the North Stars they weren't able to move the ball closer, as they failed to convert a first down before turning the ball over on downs with less than one second remaining.
"We challenged them at halftime to play tough football," Gould said. "We didn't do that in the first half and I thought they came out and played a lot better in the second half."
St. Charles North (0-2) fell behind 14-0 at halftime on touchdown runs of 6 and 11 yards from senior tailback Mark Iglesia.
The Warriors seemed primed and ready to put the game away when they opened the third quarter with a 17-play scoring drive that ate up over 7 minutes of the clock. Then, they got a little too risky when they tried to catch the North Stars off-guard with an onside kick.
The North Stars recovered and later on a 4th- and-10 from the Warriors' 34-yard line, quarterback Nick Neari connected with Nic Higgins for a touchdown.
Neari (17-of-31, 228 yards) seemed to begin finding his rhythm.
Although he fumbled the ball on the North Stars ensuing possession, he would reach out to Tim Ohlrich for a 28-yard touchdown with 3:54 remaining to make it a 20-13 contest.
Ultimately though, the mistakes would be too difficult to overcome and the timeliness was devastating. In the fourth quarter alone the North Stars converted first downs on a fake punt and an outstanding 25-yard catch by Higgins only to fumble the ball away on both occasions on the consequent plays.
"It's just something we've got to work on," Gould said. "I don't know what it is, we've got to look at how we get that consistency and we'll just challenge the guys."