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Sports

Naperville North Drops Slugfest With Glenbard North

Huskies suffer first loss in DuPage Valley Conference opener.

Football often can come down to one mistake to decide a game.

Unfortunately for Naperville North Friday night, the Huskies were the team that committed that mistake, and it cost them in the DuPage Valley Conference opener against Glenbard North.

The Panthers scored the game's only touchdown on a 34-yard interception return from Sean Fogarty in the second quarter and hung on for a gritty 10-3 win over the Huskies.

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"I know (Glenbard North coach Ryan Wilkens) very well, and I told him before the game that this could be a 2-0 slugfest," Naperville North coach Sean Drendel said. "You better have your gloves on. There are two great defenses that are going to hit each other in the mouth."

The Huskies (2-1 overall, 0-1 DVC) took an early lead on a 26-yard Ron Coluzzi field goal with 11:49 left in the second quarter. But they were unable to score the rest of the night despite four trips into the red zone.

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Complicating matters was an injury to Minnesota-bound quarterback Matt LaCosse that forced him out of the game in the second half. It was an apparent shoulder injury, and it forced backup quarterback Bryan Sleik into action. He tossed the crucial interception.

Running back Nick Sianta even took some snaps at quarterback despite not practicing there all season. He was a workhorse, gaining 126 yards on 33 carries and adding a 26-yard reception.

"Not having Matt there was hard for us," Sianta said. "He's our leader offensively. We depend on him for a lot of things. I stepped in and did all I could. Unfortunately, we came up a little short.

"At halftime, coach came up to me and told me that they needed me to play some quarterback. I was up for it."

Naperville North had just picked up a first down and was leading 3-0 when Fogarty stepped in front of Sleik's pass and took it 34 yards for the game's only touchdown with 3:37 left in the second. After a three-and-out, Glenbard North tacked on a 26-yard Mark Ng field goal with 1:14 left in the half to cap the scoring.

"We knew it was going to be this kind of game, hard-fought," Sianta said. "We were able to drive the ball pretty well on them. We just couldn't finish. It's a good opponent, but it's only one game. The DVC, it's a long season, lot of big games. We're not finished at all."

 

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