Kane County Football Notes: After rollercoaster start to year, St. Charles North sophomore QB Ethan Plumb set for another chance

The first month of Ethan Plumb’s sophomore varsity season has been a whirlwind.

Plumb entered the season with the starting quarterback job for St. Charles North.

Plumb was then replaced by senior Will Vaske during Week 2. Eight quarters of play later, Plumb finds himself back in the starting spot after an unfortunate shoulder injury to Vaske two plays into the North Stars’ eventual wild comeback win over Wheaton North last week.

The rollercoaster, so-to-speak, allowed a bit of reflection for Plumb, who started all nine games as a freshman.

“I took it as it was,” Plumb said. “I reflected what I could get better at. I knew I still had to be there for my teammates. I still have a big presence and leader on the team and I wanted to continue to be that. I wanted to make sure I didn’t deviate from that and for what I could do leadership-wise.”

“...That second week of practice, I kind of just said [to myself]: ‘You know what? I’m going to be the best scout team quarterback I can be’...hopefully, with enough hard work, hopefully, I can get another chance sometime soon,” Plumb continued. “I kept working and preparing whenever they needed to call me up and if I’d have my shot, I’d be ready for it.”

Vaske’s throwing shoulder was visibly seen in a sling on the sidelines last Friday. As of Monday, Plumb is the likely starter for this week’s game against undefeated Geneva.

“I think with Will being out and he’s got his injury now, I think they’re going to go with me as the starter this week,” Plumb said.

“It’s not fun for anyone to get hurt. No matter what happens, you never want to wish that on anybody,” Plumb continued. “So, for that to happen to Will, it’s tough. It’s the game of football. You just have to be prepared for when that kind of stuff happens and be able to bounce back from it. As a team, be able to keep going no matter what happens. Find a way to win no matter what.”

Find a way to win no matter what, indeed. The North Stars led 6-0 at halftime and later trailed 21-6 late in the second half against Wheaton North. Drew Surges scored a touchdown with 49 seconds left and later flipped the two-point conversion to tight end Jake Furtney to put the finishing touches on the comeback.

“I always say: ‘The game is not over until it’s over’ You never know what can happen in the game of football or any game for that matter,” Plumb continued. “...I just tried my best to go up to every single one of my teammates and go, ‘guys, this game isn’t over. It’s only a two score game [at this point]’ and having that faith and belief we can still do what we wanted to do at the beginning of this game and what we talked about all week.”

Fiegel, Batavia get back on track vs. Lake Park

Ben Fiegel feels the momentum of Batavia’s 42-0 win over Lake Park should carry over for the next couple weeks.

“Actually, I know it’s going to carry over these next couple weeks because that’s how we’re going to play every week from now on,” the junior linebacker said.

Fiegel had 10 tackles in the blowout win.

“I feel like we have a culture here where those last [two losses] didn’t sit right with us and we really focused and put in the work the week before Lake Park, even though it was homecoming and had a lot of distractions,” Fiegel said. “I feel like the team as a whole really came together. It was a big week for us because we had something to prove.”

Reyes, undefeated Geneva keeping eye on prize

Geneva and St. Charles North both enter this week’s contest both 2-0 in the DuKane Conference.

Something is going to give, but senior safety/running back Jackson Reyes and the Vikings are keeping focused.

“There are a lot of emotions for this week’s game, especially because of homecoming,” Reyes said. “As a team, we are all focused and feeling sharp. We know this is a big game for the program and we are ready to get the job done.”