Hersey’s solid play leads to big win

Updated: August 27, 2011 1:51AM

Don’t call it an upset.

Hersey upended No. 23 Glenbrook North 21-14 in Friday night’s season opener in Northbrook.

Second year Huskie head coach Dragan Teonic was excited by the result, but he wasn’t wearing his underdog cape heading into the matchup.

“I don’t consider anything an upset,” said Teonic. “They’re a good football team and I think we’re a good football team. I thought our kids played with a lot of intensity tonight and I think for the first time in my two years here, we came out and didn’t test any waters.”

Hersey (1-0) was dominant early as it pulled ahead 6-0 after a 50-yard touchdown run by senior running back Stephen Kuc.

The Huskies added another score with the two-point conversion after senior quarterback Brad Zaucha found senior running back Andrew Collins on the 10-yard pass.

At halftime, the Spartans (0-1) looked as if they would never score with junior running back Grant Rushing running for 28 yards on eight carries and senior quarterback Curt Petty throwing 3-for-5 for less than 10 yards passing.

“I think that we forced them into passing situations by locking down man-to-man,” Teonic said. “The hat is off to the defensive backs for locking those receivers up. I thought that by locking them up man-to-man and not giving them a chance to throw much, now we can load up the box and stop Rushing and it worked.”

Glenbrook North did turn it around in the second half as it turned a fourth and three into a 54-yard touchdown run by Rushing on a fake punt.

Petty continued to make bad reads, but eventually found senior wide receiver Chad Bruce in the corner of the end zone on a 22-yard jump ball to tie the ballgame at 14.

“They were blitzing like crazy, had a lot of cover zero blitz, our quarterback missed a couple of reads and we dropped a couple of passes,” said Teonic. “They did a great job twisting up front and confusing our offensive line.”

Hersey converted its big chances and finally finished off the game with 2:51 left on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Zaucha to senior receiver Justin Jobski.

The winning quarterback finished 16-for-28 with 204 yards passing and two touchdowns.

The Huskies running game, which included Zaucha, Collins, Kuc, senior Brian Kiss and junior David Jackowski, ran for 119 yards.

Hersey will next travel to Hoffman Estates to open its conference schedule while GBN will play at Lane Tech.

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