Red Devils take down Oak Park

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:30PM

Last season, senior offensive lineman Scott McDowell recovered a fumbled two-point conversion in the end zone to give Hinsdale Central a wild 46-45 double-overtime victory at Oak Park.

On Saturday in Hinsdale, McDowell helped the Red Devils defeat the Huskies with defense.

The Red Devils' goal-line stand at their 1-yard line just before halftime was the second of back-to-back red-zone stops that kept the Red Devils in control for a 24-13 West Suburban Conference Silver Division victory in front of their homecoming crowd.

"Whenever you win it's exciting. When it's overtime, it's a little better for the fans, but if you're out there winning the game, it's great either way," said the Illinois-bound McDowell, a starting left tackle and nose tackle on the goal-line stop.

The Red Devils (3-3, 1-2 in Silver) pulled ahead for good at 14-7 with 1:16 left in the first half on a 22-yard pass from Alex Hodakowski to Ryan Kelleher after the Huskies (1-5, 0-4) recovered a fumble at the 28 but missed a 30-yard field goal.

On their next drive, the Huskies had third-and-goal at the 1, but Zach Draus was tackled for a one-yard loss by Keith Hahn and Brad Anlauf. Quarterback John Phelan's fourth-down pass to Khail Hartzog was caught just wide of the end zone.

"We were pumped (at halftime) after that big goal-line stand. For them to get to the 1-yard line and not come away with any points, that's going to be a really huge momentum changer," McDowell said. "I think it really picked up the entire team and that's why we were able to kind of build that momentum and take it into the second half as well."

Hinsdale Central scored on its first two drives of the second half on a two-yard run by Hodakowski and Mike Kaesler's 27-yard field goal to open a 24-7 lead. Oak Park standout running back Tony Stapleton, who sat out last week's loss to Lyons Township with a pulled muscle, had a 50-yard TD run with 4:47 left.

Hodakowski rushed for 133 yards and was 7-for-10 passing for 87 yards with John Skokna (four catches, 54 yards) his top receiver. Skokna was hurt on the Red Devils' first play from scrimmage, but they still had an 80-yard TD drive capped by Andre Nelson's one-yard TD run and Skokna was back for the next series. Sophomore Andrew Pyle and Matt Connor had interceptions.

Two-way starter Draus had 98 rushing yards on 17 carries with an 8-yard TD run in the second quarter and Stapleton had 76 yards on six carries, four in the fourth quarter. Phelan was 13-for-29 passing for 144 yards with top receivers Francis Bourke (three catches, 60 yards) and Sawvanche Wonsey (five catches, 57 yards).

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