WOODSTOCK – Jon Mickle knew exactly how long it had been since he felt the rush that only high school football can bring.
“It’s been 511 days too long,” the Woodstock junior quarterback said. “It’s great to be back, and it’s great to come back the way we did.”
Mickle and his Blue Streak teammates piled up 280 total yards of offense, while the defense – save for one drive – thwarted Woodstock North’s quick-hitting attack in Woodstock’s 20-7 Kishwaukee River Conference cross-town battle on a frigid Friday night at North.
Woodstock (1-0) made it clear that its offense will rely heavily on the combination of Mickle to 6-foot-4 tight end Nate Archambeau, who caught seven passes for 82 yards and one touchdown.
“Our game plan all along is to take advantage of what the defense gives us,” Archambeau said. “We have the confidence in each other. When (Mickle) puts the ball right where it needs to be, we feel like nobody can stop us.”
North (0-1), however, did stop the Woodstock running attack for most of the night, limiting the Blue Streaks to 77 yards on the ground and recording one interception. But the Thunder didn’t have the same luck when Mickle and Co. put the ball in the air. Besides Archambeau, Zach Heelein caught six passes for 34 yards.
“Other than that first drive (the interception) I felt like we clicked in most areas,” Woodstock coach Mike Brasile said moments after hoisting the Brick Square plaque, given to the winner of the intra-city contest. “But I thought our execution was pretty good for having two weeks of practice, considering we usually get two months over the summer to prepare for the first game.”
The Streaks opened the scoring on their second drive of the first quarter when Mickle tossed a short screen pass to Cannon Sternitzky, and the shifty senior sprinted 36 yards for the score. The PAT failed.
North took the second-half kickoff and marched 70 yards in nine plays to take the lead. Eight of those plays were rushing and the ninth was a mirror-image of the Woodstock score when Jay Zinnen flipped a short pass to Henry Goetz, who galloped 42 yards for the TD. Lucas Udelhofen’s extra point gave the hosts a 7-6 lead.
However, Woodstock responded on the ensuing drive – a 74-yard, 11-play march, culminated by Mickle’s 1-yard run on a quarterback draw with 2:10 remaining in the third. That made it 12-7 before Woodstock’s fourth-quarter TD sealed the verdict.
Woodstock had one other touchdown called back because of a holding penalty, one of three such infractions on the night for the victors.
“That’s something we can clean up, but it’s kind of a typical first-game jitters type of thing,” Brasile said.
North coach Jeff Schroder lauded his team’s effort against the taller and more physical Blue Streaks, and despite the statistical difference said he was optimistic about his team’s path forward.
“Woodstock has good size on both of their lines, but our kids hung in and battled,” Schroeder said. “I’m super-proud of those kids. We executed much better in the second half, and it showed.”