Demir Ashiru shines again, Plainfield North flattens Plainfield South

PLAINFIELD — Plainfield North quarterback Demir Ashiru has started four games at the varsity football level.

Based on his level of play thus far, it looks like he’s had about 40 starts.

Showing a poise reserved for quarterbacks with five times the experience, Ashiru engineered the Plainfield North offense to the tune of four touchdown passes hauled in by four different receivers as the Tigers breezed to 4-0 with a 42-12 win over district rival Plainfield South on Thursday night.

“I did get an amount of minutes last year at the end of the games, and that helped me feel more comfortable being in those types of situations,” Ashiru said. “Also all the training in the summer and working out with the team.”

Plainfield North had better keep its training secrets to itself if performances like Ashiru’s are what it nets.

“It was a COVID year gone bad for him as a sophomore. He only got three games, so he wasn’t up to speed in his junior year,” Plainfield North coach Anthony Imbordino said. “We had a nice senior class last year and a good senior quarterback, and around Week 6 or Week 7 last year we knew he was pretty good, but at the time we were like 6-1, and we didn’t want to upset things.

“But that just made him laser focused and hungry for this year and his opportunity.”

Ashiru needed just four plays to put Plainfield North on the board, hitting Sean Schlanser with a 28-yard touchdown strike. After the defense coaxed a three-and-out from Plainfield South (1-3), the Tigers went on the march again with John St. Clair scoring the first of his two touchdown runs with a 28-yard burst.

Aiming to place an early dagger in the Cougars, Plainfield North recovered an onside kick and switched over to a ground-based drive that didn’t net it any points.

So it was back to the air.

Early in the second quarter, Ashiru was flushed out of the pocket, but continued to direct his receivers to where he thought he might be able to get them the ball. When he saw an opening, he fired a dart to Jaxon Boryca from 32 yards out to push Plainfield North further ahead.

Then came one of the few brights spots for Plainfield South. Cougar quarterback Connor Folliard lofted a pass down the sideline for 6-foot-4 wide receiver Amarri Ford, who outleaped a smaller defender, wrestled away the ball and shook off the tackle before streaking down the sideline for an 80-yard touchdown score. To that point, Plainfield South had amassed less than 20 yards of total offense against a stingy Plainfield North defense.

All the Cougars score seemed to do was push Plainfield North into flipping back on its offensive switch. St. Clair would score his second TD on a 1-yard plow to respond to the Cougar touchdown. Ashiru would find both Austin McCombs from 22 yards and Shibu Mohammed from 22 yards on an exceptional snare just before the halftime horn.

Plainfield North led 42-6 at that point, marking the second consecutive week the Tigers had erupted for 42 first-half points.

Ashiru finished 15 of 21 for 208 yards with four touchdown passes, all four to different receivers.

“Every receiver is great, there is no drop-off,” Ashiru said. “Last year, teams would single out our running back, and now they are calling out our receivers and dropping back with two safeties, and they know they have to be aware of the pass.”

Plainfield South’s Brian Stanton was bottled up by the Plainfield North defense for most of the game. He did manage to rip off a 42-yard touchdown run to cap the game’s scoring in the fourth quarter.

And while it wasn’t a flawless effort for the Tigers defense, the unit certainly had enough positives to warrant some praise. Plainfield North has allowed just 35 points through four games.

“We had a little breakdown here and there and that was unorthodox of us,” Imbordino said, “but we’ll get those things cleaned up for next week.”