Dominic Recchia’s field goal sends Yorkville past Plainfield North to first conference title since 1989

YORKVILLE – Dominic Recchia walked with his holder Jack Ferguson away from the nine other Yorkville players huddled up, alone in his thoughts.

And then he made the biggest kick of his life.

Then, for good measure, the Yorkville junior did it again.

Recchia drilled a 24-yard field goal as time expired – his third attempt in a wild final 10.8 seconds. It sent Yorkville, down 10 points at halftime, to a dramatic 13-10 win over visiting Plainfield North on Friday to clinch at least a share of the Southwest Prairie West title – the Foxes’ first conference championship since 1989.

“I’ve been dreaming about that since I was little,” Recchia said. “No nerves, not really, shook them off. I knew it was a nice easy field goal and I just did what I did.”

Recchia, whose 35-yard field goal with 11:47 left in the fourth quarter tied it 10-10, first lined up for the potential game-winning 22-yard field goal on third-and-goal with 10.8 seconds left. Plainfield North’s Keith Cyracus blocked the kick, but in the wild scramble Recchia recovered the football to give the Foxes a second opportunity at the kick on fourth down.

The kick that could potentially keep Plainfield North (4-5, 3-2), which won at least a share of the last three SPC West titles, out of the playoffs.

“You block a kick and then get another shot. What are you going to do? I have never seen that,” Plainfield North coach Anthony Imbordino said. “The kids left it all out there. Yorkville is a good team.”

Recchia made his second try, but the play was ruled dead due to a Plainfield North illegal substitution penalty.

No worry.

After his clutch recovery of the block, Recchia nailed the kick that sent Yorkville (6-3, 4-1) into the playoffs with its fourth straight win.

“I just had to get my mind right after that first kick, process everything that was going on,” Recchia said. “I just had to stay focused and do what I did. It’s absolutely amazing.”

Yorkville quarterback Michael Dopart was 18-for-35 for 183 yards, 141 of the passing yards coming in the second half, and took in the Foxes’ first score on a 1-yard TD. Dom Coronado caught seven of Dopart’s passes for 68 yards. Nicholas Darwish was 16-for-24 passing for 196 yards and a 59-yard TD to Omar Coleman on Plainfield North’s first series of the game.

After a Plainfield North deep ball into the end zone on fourth-and-1 from the Yorkville 36 was incomplete, the Foxes took over with 4:23 left.

Dopart completed four passes to three different receivers on the decisive drive, the first a 23-yarder to Josh Gettemy in a tight window along the sidelines on third-and-9 to the Plainfield North 38.

“He ran his route hard, I just had to make a play. I knew Josh would come down with it,” said Dopart, who later connected with Coronado for 10 on third-and-six.

Plainfield North led 10-0 at halftime, Darwish’s 59-yard TD pass to Coleman, and Coleman’s 25-yard field goal with a minute left in the half.

Trailing a defense that had given up just 81 points all year, Yorkville got new life when Jacob Homerding recovered a pooch kick to start the third quarter.

“That gave us a spark,” Dopart said. “We knew right then we had to go out and score.”

And the Foxes did, on Dopart’s 1-yard QB sneak to cut the Plainfield North lead to 10-7 with 8:33 left in the third quarter.

Dopart, who had four incompletions and an interception on his last five passes of the first half, got it going after halftime with nine straight completions – almost exclusively the short pass variety.

“That was a halftime adjustment, reading how they played,” Dopart said. “They’re a great defense, well-coached, I just picked the spots where they weren’t.”

Indeed, Dopart did many of the things that Darwish did in the first half with two defenses that don’t give much up against the run.

“Two stout defenses, we had to go to a dime defense, we gave up the under routes and they took advantage,” Imbordino said. “Not very often do quarterbacks keep taking the 5-yard underneath routes. They get greedy and credit to [Dopart], he didn’t.”

A year after making the program’s first quarterfinal appearance since 1999, Yorkville overcame a 2-3 start this season for the Foxes’ first conference title in 34 years, when they were members of the Interstate 8 Conference.

“I give our kids a ton of credit for sticking together and believing what we do. Just proud to be able to coach them,” Yorkville coach Dan McGuire said. “I can’t say enough good things about Dom Recchia. I’m shocked to be honest, I’m at a loss of words.”