Wheaton North prevails over Lake Park in overtime
Scoreless.
Scoreless and scoreless.
And still scoreless.
For four quarters Wheaton North and Lake Park butted heads without sniffing the goal line. Neither football team even made it closer than 18 yards away from it.
Finally, in overtime, Antowon Tolbert gave the Falcons a 6-0 lead with a 3-yard touchdown run and Nathan Love's extra point made it 7-0.
Lake Park answered immediately with David Hardwick's 10-yard scoring run. The Lancers went for 2 points and the victory, but Wheaton North sophomore Riley Dravet snared a leaping interception to seal the Falcons' 7-6 DuKane Conference overtime victory Friday in Roselle.
The way both defenses played - brilliantly - the game fittingly ended with a brilliant defensive play.
"Our d-line did a good job putting pressure on the QB and luckily we were able to come up and make the play and win the game," Dravet said. "It felt pretty great. It's not really sinking in."
Wheaton North's running back trio of Tolbert, Stephen Garner and sophomore Samson Zander combined for 176 rushing yards including 86 by Tolbert, but the Falcons (2-2, 1-1) never advanced deeper than the Lancers' 35-yard line.
"We had good possession of the ball and kept driving the ball," said Tolbert, who missed the previous two games due to injury. "That's what we were aiming for and we just had to finish. I knew our team was going to put something on the board."
Hardwick rushed for 61 yards and Jordan Colon added 37 yards for Lake Park (1-3, 0-2). The Lancers used a 9-play drive to reach Wheaton North's 18-yard line, but a missed 35-yard field goal near the start of the fourth quarter ended the drive.
"We felt like we moved the ball a little bit but we had some long fields and we couldn't string enough first downs together," said Falcons coach Joe Wardynski. "It seemed like it was destined for overtime."
In a 10-yard overtime scrum, both sides figured Wheaton North had the advantage. That's why both sides anticipated the Lancers going for 2 points and the victory following Hardwick's touchdown.
"We knew we were going for 2, it was just a matter of run or pass," said Lancers coach Chris Roll. "You can always debate that afterward when it doesn't go your way. They have a good defense and we have a good defense. And both defenses squeezed at the right time."
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