Saints secure outright UEC title

ST. CHARLES -- All season long, first-year St. Charles East football coach Mike Fields has reminded his players they only need to be "one point better" on game day.

On Saturday in the crosstown classic against St. Charles North, they took him quite literally and won 14-13 when North backup kicker Alex Pohl missed an extra point try wide right in the second overtime. The missed kick resulted in an outright Upstate Eight Conference championship for the Saints.

"They all pointed at the scoreboard and reminded me of what I had always been telling them about needing to be a point better," Fields laughed afterwards. "The kids took some leadership with what happened this week. They deserve a lot of credit."

St. Charles East won by seven or less for the fourth straight time despite not practicing from Wednesday through Friday because a flu outbreak had closed school. Some Saints got together on their own and held informal workouts.

"We decided just because we didn't have school didn't mean we couldn't put in work ourselves -- we practiced in Fox Chase Park and when it rained a buddy's father got us space at his work place," said Saints quarterback Nolan Possley.

Both teams are in the state playoffs. North (6-3, 4-3) visits South Elgin, while East (7-2, 7-0) will welcome Rockton Hononegah in Class 7A.

Defenses dominated the game, but kicking decided it. Cory Harmon had been doing the North place-kicking and had missed a 23-yard field goal wide left in overtime, but the Stars defense forced a Daniel Keller field goal try of 35 yards that missed short and wide, resulting in another overtime.

The Saints faced fourth and goal inside the one and called timeout in the second OT. Instead of another field goal try, Possley ran a quarterback sneak and just got into the end zone.

"Coach was contemplating a field goal but we were wanting to go for it," Possley said. "I believe in all five of those guys up front and six when Jess (Streidl, tight end) is in there. We said let's wedge it through."

Keller's extra-point kick after the TD loomed large. Then North scored on a third-and-six TD pass from Jake Bergren to Josh Mikes and coach Mark Gould sent in Pohl in to try the conversion, which came up short and wide right.

"They've both been about the same so we just decided to let the other guy, who's been right there, get a shot too," Gould said. "It's a tough situation to be in.

"We thought about going for two but our defense had been playing too good so we decided to let them have a chance to decide it again and kick."

North sacked Possley five times in the first half as Trevor Lilovich, Brian Pedersen, Spencer Swarts and Dirk Schmitt terrorized the Saints offense.

North had a 7-0 lead after Jeff Stolzenburg caught a 49-yard bomb from Bergren in stride with 3:30 left in the second quarter. Harmon made the conversion kick.

However, the second half started with two North penalties and a lost fumble that Jonathan Voytilla recovered at the Stars 23 to set up the only Saints score of regulation, a 1-yard TD run by Zachary Zajicek.

"Winning ugly," Fields said. "We've been doing it all year. But we owe a lot to our defense. What an effort."

ST.CHARLES EAST 14, ST. CHARLES NORTH 13 (2OT)

St. Charles North   0  7  0  0  0  6  --   13

St. Charles East     0   0  7  0  0  7  --   14

N -- Jeff Stolzenburg 49 pass from Jake Bergren (Cory Harmon kick) 3:30, 2nd

E -- Zachary Zajicek 1 run (Daniel Keller kick) 8:26, 3rd

E -- Nolan Possley 1 run (Keller kick) 2OT

N -- Josh Mikes 6 pass from Bergren (kick failed) 2OT 

                                     SCN              SCE

First Downs                   10                   11

Rushing                       37-88            46-110

Passing                        7-16-0            8-15-0

Passing yards                107                120

Total yards                    195                230

Fumbles                        5-2                 0-0

Penalties                      4-21                3-25

Punting                       4-34.0            7-26.6

Individual statistics

Rushing

St. Charles North: Dirk Schmitt 13-41, Jordan Huxtable 11-35, Ben Hodges 1-0, Bergren 12-12.

St. Charles East -- Possley 28-47, Zajicek 15-56, Tyler Nutting 1-2, Corey Campbell 1-1, Matthew Payne 1-4.

Passing 

St. Charles North: Bergren 7-16-0-107.

St. Charles East: Possley 8-15-0-120.

Receiving

St. Charles North: Stolzenburg 5-98, Mikes 1-6, Huxtable 1-3.

St. Charles East: Andrew Gomez 1-10, Zajicek 3-66, Nutting 3-36, Jess Steidl 1-8.