Drew Surges does it all, leads St. Charles North past Hoffman Estates to 10th straight win

St. Charles North's Drew Surges

HOFFMAN ESTATES – Drew Surges spoon-fed St. Charles North another win Nov. 5 in Hoffman Estates.

Surges ran for a touchdown, caught a touchdown pass, ran for a conversion and had an interception to help lead the North Stars to their 10th consecutive win as they beat Hoffman Estates 25-9 in a Class 7A second-round game.

The win moved fourth-seeded St. Charles North (11-1) into the 7A quarterfinals. The North Stars will host No. 12-seeded St. Rita at 1 p.m. Saturday.

It was Surges’ 91-yard catch and run on a “spoon route” in the second quarter that gave St. Charles North some breathing room against an energized Hoffman Estates team.

“It was fun running down the sidelines,” said Surges, who came out of the backfield, slid to the middle of the field, caught the ball and then raced untouched.

“I saw where I was going and just ran it right,” he said.

St. Charles North quarterback Will Vaske, who was operating with the strong wind at his back, said he threw the ball and just watched Surges run.

“We just had that designed like that,” said Vaske, who threw two touchdown passes and finished 7 of 12 for 188 yards. “It is easy when you have a guy matched up one-on-one. He is a scary man out there.”

The North Stars came up with big plays all afternoon to hold off the Hawks.

St. Charles North held off Hoffman Estates early in the game, forcing a 36-yard field goal by Hoffman Estate’s Emanuel Correa. That came after the Hawks had driven to the 2-yard line and had a touchdown called back for holding. It was one of 11 first-half penalties against Hoffman Estates.

With his team trailing 3-0, Surges (29 carries, 130 yards) took over for the North Stars. Heading into the wind, Surges carried the ball five consecutive times and then capped the 7-play, 80-yard drive with a 5-yard touchdown run. He added the conversion run to make it 8-3.

Hoffman Estates (7-4) put together a drive of its own. Starting at its 21, the Hawks went 14 plays to St. Charles North’s 15. But a fumble by Hoffman Estates, one of its four turnovers, was recovered by the North Stars’ Henry Warsaw.

Three plays later, on a third-and-13 play, it was 15-3 in favor of St. Charles North.

“The play before we saw that we had both the wheel route and the middle of the field open,” St. Charles North coach Rob Pomazak said. “We talked about it over the headset and chose the spoon route over the middle and he took it all the way.”

St. Charles North added to its lead when Hunter Liszka booted a 32-yard field goal just before the end of the half to make it 18-3 at the break.

Hoffman Estates had the ball and the wind to begin the second half. But an interception by Alex Valenzuela and his return to the Hoffman Estates’ 9-yard line changed things quickly.

Vaske found Jake Furtney on a 9-yard touchdown pass and the North Stars led 25-3.

That gave St. Charles North some extra cushion as Hoffman Estates put together a successful scoring drive. DiMarte Neustader, who started in place of the injured Quincy Williams, scored on a 2-yard run to cut the lead to 25-9 with 7:34 left in the third quarter.

Surges again came up with a huge play. He stepped in front of a deep pass and picked the ball off inside the North Stars’ 20-yard line to turn the Hawks away again. Surges then helped run the clock down, carrying the ball 10 consecutive times in the fourth quarter.

“Drew knows he has to show up every day,” Pomazak said. “We talked about seniors being seniors and dudes being the dudes and Drew never shies away from that. He is just an absolute animal.”

Hoffman Estates coach Tim Heyse said that despite the loss, his program continues to head in the right direction.

“You just can’t turn the ball over against a good team,” Heyse said. “Our kids have been unbelievable all year. The leadership by our seniors has been remarkable. The seniors the last three years have been stacking, stacking and stacking.”