St. Charles East surges past Streamwood
ST. CHARLES – It didn't take long for St. Charles East to turn a competitive contest into a rout.
Aided by a pair of Streamwood special teams miscues, the Saints scored three touchdowns in just over three minutes late in the second quarter to pull away for a 41-7 victory against the Sabres in the Upstate Eight Conference opener for both teams Friday night at Norris Stadium.
(Michael Smart/Staff Photographer)
PHOTO GALLERY
• SCE routs Streamwood
• Photos: SCE routs Sabres
The triumph was a welcome change of pace for East (1-2), which lost to a pair of state-ranked opponents in the first two weeks. Not only did the Saints beat Streamwood for the 15th straight time, but first-year coach Mike Fields also picked up his first win as his team dominated in every phase of the game.
"Special teams were there tonight, the defense held them to seven and the offense finally got things rolling," East defensive end Jon Voytilla said. "Everything went well tonight."
The Sabres appeared poised to hang with the Saints when they tied the score at 7 on sophomore quarterback Dalton Lundeen's 30-yard touchdown pass to Matt Woods with 8:20 left in the second quarter, but the momentum was short-lived.
East came right back and regained the lead with an eight-play touchdown drive capped by Matt Payne's second of three touchdown runs with 5:31 left in the half.
Streamwood lost six yards on three plays on its next drive and was forced to punt deep in its own territory. Sabres senior Russell Morris was late coming in from the sideline on the play, and East's Bryce Barry zipped right past Morris after the snap and blocked Dion Banda's punt. Voytilla recovered the block in the end zone, lifting the Saints to a 21-7 lead.
The onslaught continued four plays later when the Sabres botched a snap on a punt with East's Andrew Carrano recovering at the Streamwood 14-yard line. It took only one play for Payne to cross the goal line again, giving the Saints a 28-7 advantage with 2:08 left in the quarter.
"There was about a three- or four-minute stretch there where we just collapsed on ourselves," Streamwood coach Cal Cummins said. "We were playing toe-to-toe and then all of a sudden we hit that stretch. It kind of unraveled on us for just a few minutes and that was all they needed to get a little momentum going."
The Saints tacked on 13 more points in the fourth quarter after managing only three first downs in the third quarter.
Lundeen completed 5 of 15 passes for 61 yards and was intercepted once by Barry. Sophomore Alex Morrow led Streamwood on the ground with 54 yards on 19 carries.
Payne finished with 45 yards on seven carries. Senior Cory Campbell (12 carries, 69 yards) and junior Zach Zajicek (6 carries, 61 yards) also contributed to the attack while senior quarterback Nolan Possley competed 9 of 16 passes for 107 yards.
Streamwood mustered only 128 yards and averaged a meager 1.6 yards per rushing attempt against East's defense. Senior Phillip Bucaro led the Saints with eight tackles. He and Voytilla accounted for two of East's four sacks.
"I think the score takes care of itself when you play the way you are capable of playing," Fields said. "We've played some good football the past two weeks, but we needed to get better. This was a step in the right direction."
ST. CHARLES EAST 41, STREAMWOOD 7
Streamwood 0 7 0 7 — 7
St. Charles East 7 21 0 13 — 41
SCE — Payne 12 run (Keller kick), 4:25
SWOOD — Woods 30 pass from Lundeen (Banda kick), 8:20
SCE — Payne 10 run (Keller kick), 5:31
SCE — Voytilla recovered fumble in end zone (Keller kick), 3:44
SCE — Payne 14 run (Keller kick), 2:08
SCE — Possley 6 run (Keller kick), 10:46
SCE — Zajicek 30 run (kick failed), 9:02
Team statistics SWOOD SCE
First downs 10 20
Comp.-att-int. 5-15-1 10-18-0
Passing yards 61 115
Rushing-att-yds. 41-67 38-190
Total yards 128 305
Fumbles-lost 4-2 3-1
Penalties-yards 5-40 6-53
Individual statistics
Rushing:
SWOOD — Morrow 19-54, Holloway 7-20, King 5-16, Banda 1-(-9), Lundeen 9-(-14).
SCE — Campbell 12-69, Zajicek 6-61, Payne 7-45, Nutting 1-10, Jones 3-8, Possley 9-(-3).
Passing:
SWOOD — Lundeen 5-15-1 61.
SCE — Possley 9-16-0 107, Fisher 1-2-0 8.
Receiving:
SWOOD — Woods 1-30, Morrow 1-14, King 2-12, Pryor 1-5.
SCE — Russell 5-79, Nutting 4-33, 1-3.
