By KEVIN DRULEY - kdruley@kcchronicle.com
Payne steamrolls Saints to 1st victory
ST. CHARLES – Mohawked Matt Payne flashed three fingers with his right hand and one more with his left entering Friday’s fourth quarter.
His creative spin on football’s time-honored tribute to finishing the job demonstrated both the commutative property of mathematics and St. Charles East’s “whatever works” angle on its first win of the season.
“We knew if we played the way we knew we could, the score would take care of itself,” said Payne, a senior running back and safety.
He was right. The Saints barely panicked against Streamwood in a 41-7, Upstate Eight Conference victory.
Payne mixed in three plodding, defender-dragging touchdowns around teammate Jonathan Voytilla’s blocked punt recovery in the end zone as the Saints built a 28-7 halftime lead.
A first-time offensive player, Payne scored on runs of 12, 10 and 14 yards, two of which required him to take a Sabre on his back for the final steps of the way.
“Just keep your feet moving,” Payne said. “When you make contact, you can’t stop your feet. You’ve got to keep your knees driving, and it’s all heart at that point.”
East (1-2, 1-0 UEC) mirrored that mindset throughout a rough start against traditional powers Geneva and Naperville North, and it carried over to Friday.
When Streamwood (1-2, 0-1) tied the score on a 31-yard pass from Dalton Lundeen to Matt Woods early in the second quarter, the Saints responded with 34 unanswered points.
The first 21 came in a span of 3:23, with Voytilla’s play on a punt blocked by Bryce Barry the only score not involving Payne.
“I was standing next to big Jon,” Barry said of the 6-foot-3, 260-pound Voytilla. “We just looked at each other and we said we were going to go get it.”
The win marked the first for East coach Mike Fields, who joined the Saints in March after 10 seasons as a Geneva assistant.
East quarterback Nolan Possley, who played through a knee cramp in the second half, handed Fields a game ball in the postgame huddle.
“We played some good football the past two weeks, but we needed to get better,” Fields said. “This is a step in the right direction in all levels.”
Possley (six yards) and Zach Zajicek (30) added touchdown runs in the second half. Streamwood’s offense ultimately lacked the firepower to deal with such a big deficit at intermission.
“We wanted to pitch a shutout in the second half, so we came out and did that,” Barry said. “I’m so proud of the way we played tonight and the way the guys kept going and going.”
ST. CHARLES EAST 41, STREAMWOOD 7
Streamwood 0 7 0 0 – 7
St. Charles East 7 21 0 13 – 41
First quarter
SCE – Payne 12 run (Keller kick), 1:39.
Second quarter
S – Wood 31 pass from Lundeen (Banda kick), 8:20.
SCE – Payne 10 run (Keller kick), 5:31.
SCE – Voytilla blocked punt recovery (Keller kick), 3:44.
SCE – Payne 14 run (Keller kick), 2:08.
Fourth quarter
SCE – Possley 6 run (Keller kick), 10:46.
SCE – Zajicek 30 run (kick blocked), 9:02.
Individual statistics
RUSHING – Streamwood: Morrow 16-43, Holloway 8-25, King 5-16, Woods 1-4, Lundeen 8-minus 25. Totals: 38-63. St. Charles East: Campbell 11-72, Zajicek 6-59, Payne 5-49, Nutting 1-14, Jones 4-3, Gomez 1-2, Possley 9-minus 42. Totals: 37-157
PASSING – Streamwood: Lundeen 6-15-56-0-1. St. Charles East: Possley 9-16-103-0-0. Fisher 1-2-8-0-0.
RECEIVING – Streamwood: Wood 1-31, King 2-13, Morrow 2-7, Pryor 1-5. St. Charles East: Russell 5-78, Nutting 4-29, Campbell 1-4.
TOTAL YARDS: St. Charles East 268, Streamwood 119.