Williams carries load for Downers South

Updated: August 26, 2011 11:52PM

Josh Belt got his varsity football career – and Downers South’s season – started in a positive way Friday night.

Belt, a 5-8, 155-pound sophomore defensive back, stripped South Elgin quarterback Zachary Gross and recovered the ball on his own 6-yard line to halt the opening drive.

The host Mustangs responded by driving 94 yards in 10 plays to take the lead on a 1-yard run by Josh Williams and went on to a 28-7 victory in Downers Grove in the first game played on its new artificial turf field.

“My friend, DeAndre Washington, hit [Gross] up and he was still up so I just went over and hit him on top and the ball came out and I jumped on top of it,” Belt said. “I think it really pumped up the team. We got the ball back and were ready to score.”

Downers South (1-0), which won its first season opener since 2007, relied heavily on Williams, who carried 37 times for a career-high 336 yards and three touchdowns.

South Elgin (0-1) tied the game 7-7 on a six-yard run by Gross with 8:16 left in the second quarter. That came five plays after the Storm’s Michael Bahena intercepted a pass on his own goal line and returned it 50 yards to midfield.

But the Mustangs responded with another long drive, with Williams capping a 13-play, 80-yard drive with a three-yard touchdown run with 2:15 left in the first half.

The game remained 14-7 until Williams scored on an eight-yard scamper early in the fourth quarter. Notre Dame-bound tight end Scott Daly finished the scoring with 4:08 left, catching a nine-yard pass from A.J. Simoncelli for his first career touchdown.

“Starting out the year 1-0 is definitely huge, especially after the last three years losing the first and second game,” Daly said. “We grinded it out, had some tough times in the beginning but we learned from our mistakes and did better and better every down and finished strong.”

The Storm had plenty of chances but turned the ball over twice in the red zone and missed field goal tries of 39 and 35 yards. Adolfo Pacheco led South Elgin with 182 yards rushing on 19 carries, while rushed 12 times for 69 yards.

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.