Downers South ends Naperville North’s season

Updated: October 28, 2011 11:36PM

In the midst of riding a four-game winning streak midway through the season to become playoff-eligible, one thing Naperville North did exceedingly well through the season’s first seven games was take care of the football.

Getting off to a 5-2 start this season amidst only turning the ball over four times, the wheels had come off a little bit entering its Class 8A first-round game at Downers Grove South Friday in turning over the ball a combined seven times in a pair of losses to end the regular season.

On Friday night in Downers Grove, the 14th-seeded Huskies didn’t receive a reprieve by proving to be their worst enemies once again in turning the ball over four more times as No. 3 Downers Grove South rolled to a 37-24 victory.

Returning from a week off after sustaining an injury to his left shoulder in Week 8 against Naperville Central, Huskies senior quarterback Tyler Gehr saw his high school career end on not the greatest of nights in accounting for three of the Huskies’ four first-half miscues on the night.

Seeing their number of turnovers almost quadruple in the season’s last three weeks certainly leaves a bad taste in the Huskies’ mouths, as they couldn’t get out of their own way.

“You can’t turn the ball over,” Naperville North coach Sean Drendel said. “You can’t do it in the game, let alone first half. We’ve been working on it. Guess I should have kept my mouth shut when I said we haven’t been turning it over after Week 6.”

Scoring 17 points off the four forced turnovers, Downers Grove South (9-1) took full advantage behind its offense, led by senior QB A.J. Simoncelli.

Bolstered by great field position brought on by the turnovers, Simoncelli and the Mustangs scored on their first four drives of the game, including the first of two touchdown strikes to junior Kaylon Miller.

“Our defense played great. We gave up a couple scores, but offense was doing pretty well so they could give up a couple scores,” said Simoncelli, who finished 17-of-23 passing for 228 yards and two touchdowns. “They had some great turnovers. We took advantage of them.”

Mustangs junior John Wauer proved to be the biggest beneficiary of the Huskies’ charity in scoring twice from two yards out in the first half.

Wauer, a defensive back, also accounted for two of the turnovers by picking off Gehr and recovering a Gehr fumble off a failed pitch attempt as the Mustangs raced out to a 23-3 halftime lead.

“That was great. I don’t see all the defense (in practice), but I catch the end of it (at practice). I’m over with the offense,” Downers Grove South coach John Belskis said. “But you got to take care of the ball. It’s critical and when they turned the ball, we took advantage of it. That’s what good football teams do.”

With much attention being paid to Downers Grove South senior running back Josh Williams coming into the game, Williams had a relatively quiet night.

Running for perhaps the quietest 100-yard night you’ll ever see, Williams ran 34 times for 158 yards and scored the Mustangs’ final touchdown of the night, a 1-yard run that put the Mustangs up 37-17 with under seven minutes to play in regulation.

“Well, Josh and I, we’re relying on each other,” Simoncelli said. “He runs the ball very well. It’ll open up the passing game. If he can’t get anything going, I’ll open the game up for him. It was wide open at the end — the running game. It’s just what we have to do in the playoffs if we want to keep going.”

After seeing Downers Grove South score the first 10 points in the second half to create a 30-3 bulge, the Huskies offense was finally able to get some things done.

Gehr tossed three touchdown passes in the game’s final 24 minutes, with two of them going to senior Matt Stacho, to help close the deficit to 13 points on two different occasions.

But the poor showing in the first half by the offense proved to be too much to overcome.

“Our kids battled. For all the tough things that happened all year, I was really proud of how we played in the second half,” Drendel said. “We really thought we were gonna win the game. We really did and we kept fighting. Our kids fought hard. That makes me most proud.”

While Downers Grove South will prepare to host sixth-seeded Brother Rice, a 35-14 winner over Sandburg, next week in a Class 8A second-round game, Naperville North finishes its 2011 campaign at 5-5 for the second time in three seasons.

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