NIC-10 football playoff roundup: Belvidere North and Honongah roll; Boylan falls
First-and-goal from the 2 on offense.
Third-and-19 from their own-22 with less than a minute left in the half on defense.
Easy, right?
No. Not for Boylan. Not Saturday.
Boylan looked in control early, but a failure to cash in on a couple of seemingly easy opportunities quickly turned into disaster in a 35-7 second-round Class 4A football playoff loss to Elmhurst IC Catholic.
"Turnovers are going to do that to you," Boylan coach John Cacciatore said.
That kept the NIC-10 from an historic day. Belvidere North and Hononegah both won Saturday. A Boylan win would have given the conference three teams in the third round of the playoffs for only the second time in history. Instead, 1994 stands alone.
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The game turned on a drive Boylan started on its own 5 after forcing Elmhurst IC to punt for the second time. The Titans (9-2) drove 93 yards to get a first-and-goal at the 2. The next two plays lost 2 yards. And on third down, Connor Dennis, about to be sacked for a huge loss, forced a throw that was intercepted.
"He was thinking 15-yard sack and was trying to throw it away but the guy was right in his face," Cacciatore said. "That’s a kid working his tail off to try and make a play."
IC Catholic then went 85 yards in five quick plays to take a 7-0 lead with 5:30 left in the half.
"That changed the game," Boylan running back/receiver Rasheed Johnson said. "If we came down and scored, it would have been 7-0 and we would have had momentum. We have to capitalize at the goal line. We couldn’t do nothing after that."
Boylan lost a fumble two plays later, setting up a 41-yard drive that gave Elmhurst IC a 14-0 lead.
The Knights (9-2) weren’t done. After three incomplete Boylan passes, Elmhurst IC got the ball at its own 20. The Titans looked like they would get the ball back until Joey Gliatta ran 38 yards with a simple handoff up the middle on third-and-19. Then, after three straight IC Catholic penalties, Dennis Mandala threw a 29-yard TD pass to KJ Parker with two seconds left in the half. TV shots seemed to show Parker stepped out of bounds a foot or so before getting into the end zone, another play that barely went against Boylan, giving IC Catholic 21 points in the final 5:30 of the first half.
That basically ended the game between the state's No. 2 and No. 3 ranked Class 4A teams.
"We moved the ball well in the first half," Cacciatore said. "I thought we were in the fight. But that (TD pass to Parker) was a gut punch. We were getting ready to come down from the coaches' box and make halftime adjustments, down 14, which is do-able. You have seen us come back from more than that."
Instead, Boylan was down 21 at the half. And 28 after Elmhurst IC's opening drive of the third quarter. The game was over.
"At the end of the day it’s about growing your life, and we learned from today," said Johnson, who returned from a back injury to catch two passes for 19 yards on Boylan's first three plays but finished with just 31 yards.
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Belvidere North 28, Wauconda 21
Nico Bertolino scored three touchdowns, including a 98-yard run and 20-yard interception return for the winning score to lead Belvidere North (9-2) into the third round of the playoffs for the third time in school history (also 2009 and 2017).
The nine wins is a school record for Belvidere North.
North scored first and last, with the two teams swapping TDs all the way. Ben Bucher gave North an early 7-0 lead with a 4-yard run. Bertolino’s run made it 14-7 before Wauconda tied it at halftime. Wauconda, which ran 60 times for 272 yards, drove to the 2 in the third quarter before North held on downs. Bertolino’s 98-yard run made it 21-14 and his interception return won the game after Wauconda (8-3) had tied it at 21.
Bertolino finished with 114 yards rushing on only six carries and caught two passes for 27 yards. Max Gyllenswan added 61 yards on six carries, Trent Dinsmore 57 yards on 15 rushes and Bucher 41 yards on three carries.
North now plays the winner between No. 1 seed Lake Zurich (9-1) and No. 9 Maple Park Kaneland (7-3) in next week’s quarterfinals.
Hononegah 44, Villa Park Willowbrook 0
Isaiah Houi caught five passes for 97 yards and a touchdown and Hononegah's defense smothered Willowbrook. Hononegah (11-0) will now host Batavia (10-1) in next week's Class 7A quarterfinals.
Hononegah held Willowbrook to 1-for-14 on third-down conversions and also to eight pass completions in 38 attempts. Hono ran 37 times for 170 yards, topped by Luke Poppe's 42 yards on 11 carries. Cole Warren completed 7 of 12 passes for 124 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.
Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.
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