St. Charles North survives South Elgin

South Elgin wide receiver Jake Kumerow slides into the end zone for a Storm touchdown against St. Charles North on Saturday.
Riza Falk | For The Courier News

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STREAMWOOD -- Saturday's contest at Millennium Field turned into a classic battle between the arm of South Elgin quarterback Patrick Rae and the legs of St. Charles North's Jordan Huxtable.

Despite brilliant performances by Rae, who completed 22 of 32 passes for 342 yards and three touchdowns -- without an interception -- and wide receiver Josh Smith, who caught 10 passes for 204 yards, it was Huxtable who won out in the end.

The junior tailback rushed for 239 yards on 34 carries and three touchdowns, including two long scoring runs late in the game to lift the North Stars to a 35-24 come-from-behind Upstate Eight Conference win.

North (4-2, 2-1) trailed 17-7 going into the fourth quarter, but scored TDs on its final four possessions of the game to spoil South Elgin's first-ever homecoming.

"First of all, we were blessed with great field position most of the second half," North coach Mark Gould said. "The plan was to keep trying to find ways to get Huxtable in the open field where he can really do some things. Eventually, I think we were able to wear them down and started opening some holes."

The Storm (2-4, 1-2) had just regained the lead, 24-21, with 5:14 left to play in the game. However, on the North Stars' very first play from scrimmage on their next possession, Huxtable took a pitch to the left, cut back to the middle, found daylight and bolted for a 53-yard touchdown run to give North the lead for good, 28-24.

Huxtable added an insurance 56-yard touchdown run on a sweep down the right side with just over a minute to play.

"My blockers started doing a great job of picking up the linebackers," Huxtable said. "It really opened the cutback lanes and I'm a cutback runner. So that was just what I needed."

For the second straight week, South Elgin headed into the final quarter poised to pull off a stunning upset. But for the second straight week, the defense stumbled down the stretch. However, unlike last week when the Storm held on for a 20-19 win against Thorton Fractional South, it let the lead slip away twice in the fourth quarter this time around. A 38-yard field goal by freshman David Reisner with 2:54 left in the third quarter gave South Elgin its biggest lead of the day, 17-7.

North then started a 65-yard drive late in the third that ended with a 5-yard touchdown run by Michael Ghanem on the first play of the fourth quarter to pull North to within 17-14. The North Stars got the ball right back at the South Elgin 19-yard line, when the Storm committed its only turnover of the game on a fumble.

Five plays later, the North Stars took a 21-17 lead on a 4-yard touchdown pass from Sean McGushin to Jeff Stolzenberg.

The Storm didn't go down easily. It rallied back to take a 24-21 lead with a 10-play, 66-yard drive that culminated with a spectacular 19-yard touchdown grab by Smith as he jumped high in the air to make an off-balance catch in double coverage in the middle of the end zone.

After the Storm lost the lead again, it tried to rally back one last time, but it was stopped at North's 21-yard line with less than two minutes to play.

"It's very disappointing because the kids really worked hard," Storm coach Dale Schabert said. "They really wanted to win this game for the school to start building a tradition. But we are still at the point in our program where we need to learn to finish games. A lot of good things came out of this game. We have made tremendous progress, we are moving in the right direction and we are going to get there."

Rae also had a pair of touchdown passes in the first half of 17 yards to Jake Kumerow and 5 yards to Phil Kawabata. Huxtable accounted for North's first-half score on a 6-yard TD run.

McGushin completed 12 of 18 passes for 127 yards. Kumerow had five receptions for 128 yards.