St. Charles North keeps its playoff hopes alive

The last thing Larkin football coach Mike Scianna would want to hear was how St. Charles North tailback Ben Hodges described his two touchdowns in the opening three minutes of Friday night's Upstate Eight River division contest.

"It was great blocking, it was wide open and I didn't get touched," the North Star senior said of his 85-yard kickoff return against Larkin to open the game.

As for his 33-yard scoring burst on St. Charles North's first snap from scrimmage, Hodges said, "Didn't get touched at all, and the linemen were really playing great."

Hodges' heroics set the tone for the host North Stars to roll to a 42-14 victory, effectively knocking Larkin (2-5, 1-3) out of the playoff hunt, while keeping their own hopes alive.

Hodges would add a third touchdown run on a 2-yard burst in the second quarter, while teammate Josh Mikes would do all of the second-half damage by hauling in a 37-yard touchdown pass across the middle, and a 64-yard bomb from quarterback Matt Shiltz.

Hodges and Mikes were keys for St. Charles North (3-4, 2-2), but Jake Bergren also finished with an impressive stat line. Bergren pulled in a 17-yard touchdown pass that opened a 21-0 first-quarter lead, and also ran for 67 yards on two carries, recovered a fumble and intercepted a Kyle Newquist pass.

"We've got to win three (to get in the playoffs) and you want to win convincingly, if you can, to get your confidence up," St. Charles North coach Mark Gould said. "We went up two touchdowns right away, but as we saw last week when we went up right away, these teams have guys who can come back on you right away."

Larkin was never able to come back, but the Royals gave it a good effort by faring well in most statistical categories notching 22 first downs, committing only one 5-yard penalty, rushing for 192 yards and passing for 108.

But the Royals had two drives stopped by fumbles, one halted by an interception and were victimized by two onside kicks, both of which were recovered by Shawn Collins for the North Stars.

Scianna felt his team was stung hard by the opening kickoff return, and losing a fumble early in the second half.

"We tried to keep it away from 25 (Dirk Schmitt) and then the other guy (Hodges) bites us, so you know they have a great team over there," Scianna said of the opening kickoff. "At our ability level, we can't afford to have any mistakes, but they gave everything they had and we're really proud of them. The seniors are upset because they know we are out of the playoffs so it is hard on them."

Despite the miscues, the Royals still had some hopes in the second half until Shiltz found the speedy Mikes (3 receptions, 142 yards) open for his scores.

"Up in the coaches' box, I think they saw that we could run some deep routes on these guys when they were playing man-to-man coverage, so we went to it and it worked out," Mikes said.

"With this big win we have a lot of confidence, but we've got a tough Batavia team coming up. We beat them last year and they are going to want revenge."

Larkin tailback Brent Cooks was the workhorse for his team by rushing for a game-high 121 yards on 23 carries and scoring on a 3-yard run, while David Perez tallied the Royals' other second-quarter touchdown on a 6-yard pass from Newquist.