Wheaton North drops WW South
Wheaton North's football team hasn't had a great deal of success in recent years against cross-town rival Wheaton Warrenville South.
Having lost 10 of the last 11 meetings, the Falcons (2-3, 1-0) picked an opportune time to play one of their most complete games of the season during a 30-9 victory over the Tigers (1-4, 0-1) before a standing-room only crowd at Rexilius Field.
Sophomore quarterback Luke Anthony threw 3 touchdown passes and ran for another score to lift host Wheaton North to its second consecutive win after an 0-3 start.
“Our receivers made big plays, our running backs ran hard and our linemen had an amazing game,” said Anthony, who completed his first 4 passes during the Falcons' 8-play, 60-yard opening drive that was capped by a 4-yard TD toss to J.P. Forcucci.
After junior Anthony Sawyer pinned the Tigers back to their own 3-yard line with a 37-yard punt, the Falcons mounted a 9-play, 52-yard drive that ended with Anthony's 12-yard TD strike to senior tight end Jake Heggeland on the first play of second quarter for a 14-0 lead.
“He took care of the football tonight and made some nice throws,” Falcons coach Joe Wardynski said of Anthony.
Ben Flores got the Tigers on the board with a 31-yard field goal midway through the second quarter, but Sawyer's second punt of the game a few minutes later once again left the visitors with horrible field position inside their 3-yard line.
On the next play a holding penalty in the end zone on the Tigers resulted in a safety as the Falcons grabbed a 16-3 halftime advantage.
After the Tigers' defense forced a three-and-out series on the Falcons' opening possession of the second half, the offense finally showed some life as senior quarterback Josh Prueter tossed a 9-yard TD pass to receiver Keishawn Watson in the back corner of the end zone to cut the margin to 16-9.
A costly special teams penalty kept the Tigers from regaining possession — and the Falcons made them pay two plays later when Anthony fired a 53-yard TD pass to Michael Bloss for a 23-7 lead with 51 seconds left in the third quarter.
“We knew they were in Cover 1, so Bloss ran a post and made a great catch,” said Anthony, who put the finishing touch on his extraordinary night with a 1-yard TD run with 5:31 remaining.
“I think this was our biggest team win,” said Forcucci, who had 14 receptions for 115 yards and a TD.
“It was a very good win,” Wardynski added. “Being that it's the cross-town rival, that always adds something to it but we didn't make a huge deal about it being Wheaton South this week just because of the fact that we were 1-3.
“Nobody wanted to walk out of here still with one win. In that sense it was big.”
The Falcons also received significant defensive contributions from sophomore linebacker Erik Mueller, senior linebacker Nick Singleton and junior defensive back Ben Moore.
The loss left the Tigers in a must-win situation over their final four regular-season games to reach the playoffs.
“We're going to have to do some personnel evaluations between now and Monday because we're in a critical time of the year,” said Tigers coach Ron Muhitch. “We're trying to salvage a season.”