WHEATON — The Belvidere North players held up their helmets to their fans after their game, and the crowd cheered loudly.
It didn’t matter that North lost the game by 35 points. North fans knew that this team was special because it was the first North football team to qualify for the playoffs.
But for now, the first playoff win will have to wait.
Wheaton St. Francis breezed past North in the first-round Class 5A playoff game with a 49-14 running-clock win Saturday. North ends its season 5-5 after finishing 3-6 in its inaugural season in 2007.
“You take baby steps,” North coach Curt Tobin said. “We have seven junior starters on defense, and the kids who are coming back just have to learn from this. To go far in the playoffs, the first thing you have to do is qualify for the playoffs. Then comes the understanding of what you have to do in order to go far. I hope we took the first step this year.”
St. Francis stopped North quarterback Corey Wennmacher from both throwing and running the ball. He finished 5 of 11 for 18 yards. He rushed 16 times for 77 yards, but 49 of those yards came on one play late in the fourth quarter.
“They just came at us,” said North senior running back Jacob Billon, who was held to 26 yards on four carries. “They’re a good team, and they hit us hard. We did as much as we could.”
St. Francis (9-1) scored four unanswered touchdowns in the first half on two passing touchdowns of 12 and 48 yards from Jeff Reckards to Brett Robinson, a 35-yard run by Tony Vargyas and an 8-yard pass from Reckards to Pfeiffer. Reckards would finish 12 of 17 for 174 yards and three TD’s.
The highlight of the game for the Blue Thunder came on the opening kickoff of the second half. Dominique Hall returned it 85 yards for the score, then North followed it by recovering its onside kick.
“Tobin got us pumped up in the huddle after the first half, and we wanted to go out and give a lot more,” Billon said. “But then they just came at us and hit us hard again.”
The Spartans intercepted the next Wennmacher pass to regain possession, and three plays later they added another score on a 17-yard run by Mark Kachmer. St. Francis added two 7-yard TD runs by Dave Sufranski and Stan Bobowski, and the game went to the running clock with 10:28 remaining.
North added one more score with 8:23 left when Wennmacher had a 49-yard run and followed it with an 8-yard TD rush.
“We didn’t have the ball very much in the first half,” Tobin said. “And when you get behind 28-0 like that, it’s hard to overcome.
“We had a great season. The kids did a lot of good things. I think they really overachieved, because nobody expected us to be here. I’m sorry it ended this way, but it was a nice season.”
- Emily Tropp, rrstar.com
