High school football: Late score lifts St. Charles North against Batavia

BATAVIA – Zach Mettetal had seen this before.

His team allowed Batavia to come back from a 21-point, second-half deficit to tie the game, but he wasn’t going to allow St. Charles North to lose this one.

The senior quarterback led his team onto the field with just over two minutes in go in a tie game. For as much talk as his defense had gotten until this point in the season, it was Mettetal's turn.

Mettetal's 29-yard keeper with 1:11 to go proved to be the game-winning touchdown in a 42-35 North Stars victory on Oct. 21 in Upstate Eight River play.

After Batavia's Michael Niemiec blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown (along with a two-point conversion pass from Riley Cooper to Glenn Albanese) to cap 21 unanswered points for the Bulldogs, Mettetal led his North Stars (8-1, 5-1 UER) 93 yards in six plays that spanned just 1:23.

"We learned a valuable lesson," Mettetal said of a 28-21 loss to St. Charles East on Sept. 16 in which the North Stars led 14-0 early. "We knew we had to respond to adversity, especially against a really good team. That's what we did and it's only going to help us moving on into the playoffs."

The win was the first for North coach Rob Pomazak against Batavia in this his third year at the helm of the program. More importantly, the North Stars finish the season with just one loss and improved its seeding in the IHSA Class 7A playoffs.

Early on, it looked as though North, who finished the regular season allowing just 78 total points, was going to come into Batavia and blow the Bulldogs off their home field.

Three touchdown passes from Mettetal to Griffin Hammer in the first quarter, followed by an 80-yard score from running back Eric Lins on the first play of the second quarter gave the North Stars a 28-7 edge. Mettetal finished with 202 passing yards, 56 rushing yards, and four total touchdowns.

"It's a huge win for us," said Hammer, a Colorado State commit who finished with a season-high 107 receiving yards on six catches. "We pick each other up when someone is down. Tonight the offense had to pick the defense up and that's what good teams do this time of year. We have to keep our foot on the gas and not let up from here. There's a lot of room for improvement, but this is definitely a big win for us."

Though Batavia (7-2, 4-2) creeped closer before halftime on a one-yard score from quarterback Ben Weerts, it was the other Bulldogs quarterback's miscue that led to North building a 21-point advantage in the third quarter.

Cooper was intercepted by Chris Edlund on Batavia's first drive, which was immediately followed by Lins' second touchdown run of the game, this one from 18 yards out.

The Bulldogs wouldn't go away, however.

A Dana Anderson touchdown run was followed by a 14-yard connection between Weerts and tight end Jake Robinson, who also had a forced fumble after a sack of Mettetal late in the first half.

"Those guys just keep fighting and fighting and you feel like no lead is safe," Pomazak said of Batavia. "We talked about keeping a level head through adversity and focusing in on the moment. It was definitely hard when [Batavia] had the momentum late, but for us to get over the hump like this is a really big win for our program."

Niemiec's play to tie the game, which will go slightly under-shadowed due to Mettetal's late heroics, came after he was unblocked and essentially grabbed the ball of the foot of Lins, North's punter, and carried it 15 yards for a score.

Batavia's struggles of passing the ball became more and more evident late as Cooper and Weerts combined to go just 4-of-12 for 49 yards and two interceptions, the latter of which landed in the arms of Tyler Nubin to end any comeback hopes for Batavia in the final minute.

The Bulldogs got strong games on the ground from Reggie Phillips (25 carries, 156 yards) and Anderson (13 carries, 97 yards), who each found the end zone. Lins finished with a game-high 217 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries for North.

Pomazak and Batavia coach Dennis Piron shared friendly handshakes both at the end of the game and again before walking off the field. Both knew the outcome and quality of the contest held positive futures for their respective programs.

"Being in that type of game where you're not just physically tested, but also mentally tested

is huge," Pomazak said. "There's certainly room to get better from here because there's things that happened where if they don't happen, we don't put ourselves in situations like tonight."

"We gave ourselves a shot," Piron said. "I'm extremely proud of the effort, the fight to not give up and come back in the game like this. It's tough to come out on the losing end of it, but it was a really good football game between two good football teams that are heading to the playoffs."

Both teams will wait for the Oct. 22 reveal of the Class 7A brackets to which they will figure out their first-round opponents.

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BOX SCORE

St. Charles North 21 7 7 7 – 42

Batavia 7 7 7 14 – 35

HOW THEY SCORED

First quarter

SCN: Hammer 37 pass from Mettetal (A. Durocher kick), 11:24

BAT: Phillips 1 run (Heinz kick), 8:21

SCN: Hammer 17 pass from Mettetal (A. Durocher kick), 3:59

SCN: Hammer 22 pass from Mettetal (A. Durocher kick), 1:25

Second quarter

SCN: Lins 80 run (A. Durocher kick), 11:38

BAT: Weerts 1 run (Heinz kick), 3:10

Third quarter

SCN: Lins 18 run (A. Durocher kick), 9:56

BAT: Anderson 8 run (Heinz kick), 6:13

Fourth quarter

BAT: Robinson 14 pass from Weerts (kick failed), 4:48

BAT: Niemiec 15 blocked punt return (Albanese pass from Cooper), 2:34

SCN: Mettetal 29 run (A. Durocher kick), 1:11

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: St. Charles North – Lins 23-217, Mettetal 7-56, A. Durocher 1-minus-4. Totals: 31-269. Batavia – Phillips: 25-156, Anderson 13-97, Weerts 13-39, Evers 2-9, Cooper 2-8. Totals: 55-309.

PASSING: St. Charles North – Mettetal 13-21-0-202. Batavia – Weerts 3-10-1-32, Cooper 1-2-1-17.

RECEIVING: St. Charles North – Hammer 6-107, Segobiano 4-45, Dehut 1-27, A. Durocher 2-23. Batavia – Richter 1-17, Robinson 1-14, Anderson 1-13, Albanese 1-5.

TOTAL TEAM YARDS:  St. Charles North 471, Batavia 358