Drake Davis was still in awe of what he had just done.
Given a shot at Naperville Central, Naperville North’s senior quarterback wasn’t about to let the moment slip by.
Davis’ 339 total yards and four touchdowns led the Huskies to a 44-41 DuPage Valley Conference victory over Friday at North Central College.
“This feeling’s awesome,” he said. “I’m sure it’ll settle in more probably (Saturday). I mean, this is huge for our program. Came in, lost last two games. Hopefully we can carry this out through the rest of the year.
Three of Davis’ four touchdowns came through the air as he found Ryan Laurenzo, Brett Zdrubecky and Matt Heinz on the way to completing 22-of-32 passes for 313 yards.
Laurenzo caught a game-high nine passes for 135 yards and a score for Naperville North, which turned away a 27-23 deficit.
“We always go in believing and nothing changed,” he said. “We went in there knowing that we were going to do our thing and that’s exactly what we did. We held our point and we did it.
Naperville North (5-2, 4-2) got to postseason eligibility by putting the running game to use.
Zdrubecky and Ameir Wilbourn combined for 155 yards and two touchdowns on 34 carries while Davis added a one-yard TD run in the second.
Wilbourn’s 65-yard touchdown in the fourth helped salt things away as the Huskies snapped a two-game losing streak.
“Ameir’s a great running back,” Naperville North coach Sean Drendel said. “We just haven’t been able to get him on the edge and get him going. If we can get him in the open field, he can run. He makes good cuts and does a lot of great things.”
Now on a two-game losing streak itself, Naperville Central (5-2, 5-1) suffered its first conference loss despite churning out 404 total yards.
The Redhawks took a 27-23 lead late in the third on a three-yard touchdown run from Jayden Reed.
But Wilbourn’s TD run and a Redhawk fumble on the ensuing kickoff helped swing momentum back into the Huskies’ favor.
Junior quarterback Payton Thorne was 14-of-28 passing for 287 yards and four touchdowns for Naperville Central.
Rutgers-bound lacrosse player Tommy Coyne grabbed five passes for 109 yards and a score while the Western Michigan-bound Reed had 114 total yards and two TDs.
“Give (the Huskies) credit,” Naperville Central coach Mike Stine said. “They made plays when they needed to, obviously. In the second half, we made some plays. We got back in it; we took the lead. But North’s offense – they came right back.
“I think two of the key plays – we got stopped on the fourth down; fourth-and-one at midfield and didn’t convert that. We had the turnover. In a shootout, you can’t turn the ball over and we did that. And I don’t think we got any from them.”
In the first half, Davis threw for 206 yards for the Huskies and found Laurenzo (26 yards) and Zdrubecky (34 yards) for TDs.
The Huskies pieced together a 20-point second quarter as their three scores were sandwiched around a 28-yard touchdown reception from Tommy Coyne for the Redhawks.
“We definitely run on confidence here,” Laurenzo said. “Even when we’re not getting it done, we still run on confidence and that’s exactly what we did. We knew that no matter what they were doing on offense, our offense was going to keep going and doing our thing.”
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