Naperville North came home Friday night to open up DuPage Valley Conference play opposite Glenbard North with redemption on its mind.
Still smarting at giving up 353 yards on the ground and 428 total yards in a lopsided loss to Phillips last week, the Huskies’ defense and special teams took that to heart by displaying the type of defense one has known to expect under fifth-year coach Sean Drendel.
Creating several short fields to give its offense enough opportunities to try and gain some separation from Glenbard North, Naperville North took a 13-point lead into halftime.
A pair of halfback TD passes helped turn the second-half tide into the Panthers’ favor as they escaped Harshbarger-Wetzel Field with a 20-19 victory over the Huskies in Naperville.
Two of the guys entrusted to help replace Northwestern freshman running back Justin Jackson, Devion Hodges and Jace James, were responsible for the two trick plays as the Huskies never trailed until James found Luke Siperly for a 21-yard score with 1:11 left in regulation to give the Panthers their eventual game-winning margin of 20-19.
“You never really get Glenbard North in a position to run gadget plays, so you don’t see them very often. You know, they execute them well,” Drendel said. “They did a great job and we didn’t make enough plays down the stretch and they did. That’s what it comes down to, so it’s a hard loss. We got to get back at it and figure it out.”
Finding each other five times for 59 yards and a 25-yard score, senior QB Chris Gajcak and senior running back D’Angelo Hyshaw got the Huskies offense going in the first half.
Hyshaw’s 25-yard TD reception came two plays after Chris Zhang recovered a blocked punt for
Naperville North (2-2) late in the first quarter while Gajcak later added a TD run to account for his team’s only points in the second half.
“We did some things that we haven’t shown offensively and it felt like we were in pretty good rhythm,” Drendel said. “We just had a couple opportunities to put touchdowns in and then we end up getting field goals. Against good teams, that ends up costing you.”
While the offense bogged down in the second half, Drendel, the program’s longtime defensive coordinator before taking over for Larry McKeon prior to the 2010 season, was proud of the effort his defense turned in.
The Panthers were limited to just 50 total yards in the first half as four of their five first-half drives concluded in two turnovers, a blocked punt and a three-and-out as the Huskies took a 13-0 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Readily acknowledging the Panthers’ ability to make plays late, Drendel also left pleased considering where his team was at six days ago after suffering a 33-point loss to Phillips.
“We played with a lot of heart, we played with a lot of passion (Friday night) and I like the way our team’s headed after last week’s loss (to Phillips),” he said.
