By KEVIN CHROUST - editorial@kcchronicle.com
Saints seeing positives despite 2nd straight defeat
NAPERVILLE – First-year St. Charles East football coach Mike Fields is not used to starting seasons 0-2, but considering the competition, he’s not all that down on his football team.
After a close Week 1 loss to Geneva, the Saints fell again Friday night at defending DuPage Valley Conference champion Naperville North, 28-7.
“I’d rather play the big dogs and let’s see where we’re at,” Fields said. “There’s a lot of positives to take from tonight. There was a lot of positives to take from last week’s Geneva game. We’ll find the positives in this and convey that to the players and build on it and next week we’ll go to battle.”
East’s defense held up its end of the deal in a scoreless first quarter, but the Huskies (2-0) broke out in a 21-point second quarter.
They took the lead with 9 minutes remaining in the half when quarterback Matt LaCosse dumped a pass to wide receiver James O’Shaughnessy, who was hit behind the line of scrimmage, but broke an East tackle and went 14 yards for the touchdown to cap the 11-play drive.
“We missed some tackles,” Fields said. “You can’t arm tackle and win against a team like Naperville North. There’s no way in the world.”
After East (0-2) went three-and-out, Naperville North again marched down the field, and LaCosse finished a 10-play, 49-yard drive with a keeper from the 1-yard line.
It looked as if East would head to the locker room with a two-possession game still within reach, but a botched punt snap inside the 2-minute mark gave the Huskies the ball on East’s 18. Running back Idris Hanidu made the Saints pay with an 18-yard run on the next play to extend the score to 21-0 with 1:09 left in the half.
The Huskies scored their final touchdown on their first possession of the second half to complete a stretch of four straight turns with the ball they converted into a touchdown.
This time they marched from their own 10, and LaCosse dissected East’s defense on a 26-yard option keeper to finish the drive and essentially put the game out of reach with 4:41 left in the third.
East scored on its final possession on a 2-yard run by Matthew Payne, and moved the ball 71 yards to do so, but it wasn’t against the Huskies’ first defense. Even with that 71-yard drive, East managed just 132 yards of total offense.
Conversely, Naperville North went for 297. The crisp drives without any turnovers and disruptive penalties isn’t exactly what most high school teams show in Week 2, but it’s what LaCosse expects.
“I expect it every time we go out,” LaCosse said. “They showed a different defense than what we’ve been practicing in the first quarter, but as you saw in the second quarter, we came to play.”
Starting in Week 3 against Streamwood, East will have to go at least 5-2 to make the playoffs.