South Elgin stuns Neuqua Valley

NAPERVILLE – South Elgin is for real. Just ask Neuqua Valley.

The Storm rallied from a 14-point deficit and stunned the Wildcats 28-26 on Friday night in a result that should raise a few eyebrows throughout the Upstate Eight Conference.

In years past, it was Neuqua which ran roughshod against South Elgin and that was the script that the home folks expected to unfold on homecoming night for the Wildcats, but it didn't.

"We didn't get the memo," said South Elgin's Bradley Birchfield, who returned the second-half kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown to completely shift the momentum. "We don't listen to all of that. We just play our ballgame. All we heard about was how (Neuqua) was the best 0-2 team around."

Birchfield's kick return brought South Elgin to within 14-13. The Storm eventually took a 28-20 lead with 7 minutes, 39 seconds remaining in the game thanks to quarterback John Menken's third touchdown pass to receiver Jake Kumerow.

Menken finished 9 of 24 for 163 yards with three touchdowns and one fumble. Kumerow had seven catches for 106 yards and three touchdowns.

Neuqua closed to within 28-26 when quarterback Joe Ippolito scored on a 16-yard run with 3:38 left.

After South Elgin (3-0, 1-0 Upstate Eight Conference) used its final timeout, Neuqua (0-3, 0-1) lined up for a two-point conversion. Storm linebacker Derek Hurschman blasted through the line and tackled Ippolito before he could make a play to stop the conversion.

"They blew it up right away," Neuqua coach Bryan Wells said.

Hurschman, who also plays on offense, said he reached deep down to get the energy to make the play.

"It was time to make a huge play and I had nothing left in the tank," Hurschman said. "I just got refilled real quick and I just had to get through and make a play. I knew they were going to run because they were (running) all night. It was just the whole team stepping up. I shot through a different gap and it really surprised them."

South Elgin failed to run out the clock on its next possession, which gave Neuqua one final chance. The Wildcats drove the Storm's 45, but the drive stalled on downs when running back Trenton Snyder, who had 20 rushes for 156 yards, dropped an Ippolito pass on fourth down with 1:16 left and no timeouts remaining.

Neuqua dominated the statistics, racking up 318 rushing yards. Ippolito completed 13 of 20 passes for 170 yards and rushed for an additional 119 and four scores to help give the Wildcats a total of 488 yards of total offense compared to 168 yards for the Storm.

"It doesn't matter how many yards we give up because we know our defense will make stops," Menken said. "We know that our offense will score points. Nobody in (Neuqua's) stands thought we were going to win this game and we came out and stuck it to Neuqua Valley."

Neuqua was sloppy and South Elgin took advantage. The Wildcats committed three turnovers, committed eight penalties, allowed the Storm to convert a third and 31, jumped offsides on fourth down to allow a scoring drive to continue and made a number of other mental blunders.

"We put ourselves in bad situations all night and then we made it worse by not playing well," Wells said.

In all of Neuqua's losses, it has led in the second half.

"We have to stay focused for a whole ballgame and I don't know what to attribute that to," Wells said. "We play inexperienced at times and that has really hurt us a lot."

South Elgin 28, Neuqua Valley 26

South Elgin           0   6   15   7   —   28

Neuqua Valley     7   7    6    6   —   20

First Quarter

NV — Ippolito 1 run (Snyder kick), 3:35

Second Quarter

NV — Ippolito 2 run (Snyder kick), 8:34

SE — Kumerow 29 pass from Menken (kick failed), 5:03

Third Quarter

SE — Birchfield 89 kickoff return (Snyder kick)

SE — Kumerow 4 pass from Menken (Dan Heine pass from Sean McGinn), 7:21

NV — Ippolito 11 run (kick wide), 3:45

Fourth Quarter

SE — Kumerow 8 pass from Menken (Reisner kick), 7:39

NV — Ippolito 16 run (conversion failed ), 3:38

Team statistics                   SE                NV

First downs                            8                  32

Comp.-att-int.                   9-24-0         13-20-2

Passing yards                      163                170

Rushing-att-yds.                  21-5           52-318

Total yards                         168                 488

Fumbles-lost                      2-1                  2-1

Penalties-yards                 3-31                8-45

Individual statistics

Rushing:

SE — Menken 9-(minus 15), Birchfield 11-19, Hansley 1-1.

NV — Snyder 20-156, Ippolito 26-119, Herzberger 2-22, Suliafu 2-11, Guido 1-7, Hammond 1-3.

Passing:

SE — Menken 9-24-0, 163.

NV — Ippolito 13-20-2, 170

Receiving:

SE — Kumerow 7-106, Failla 3-57.

NV – Snyder 5-90, Herzberger 4-35, Camire 2-30, Wonsey 1-9, Meaney 1-6.