VIEWS: North’s playoff ghosts slain

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ST. CHARLES – The St. Charles North defense has given coach Mark Gould plenty of reason to trust it this season.

It’s a fast, hard-hitting group that can handle its business.

But North’s D could have suited up Mike Singletary, Dick Butkus and Lawrence Taylor in their primes, and Gould was going to be doing his best not to upchuck on the sidelines in the final minute of this game.

With North’s playoff history, you can understand it.

The North Stars went from being in excellent shape in Friday night’s second-round playoff game against Elk Grove Village to the brink of hysteria – not in a good way – until North senior linebacker Dom Imbordino intercepted quarterback Nick Meyer’s pass in the end zone in the final minute to move the North Stars into the 7A quarterfinals with a 20-14 victory.

Gould has presided over almost a decade of North football, an impressive decade until you start factoring in playoff results. North had won just one playoff game until this season, including some devastating finishes in losses to Moline and Rolling Meadows.

That’s why North’s fumble near midfield with 3:51 left in the game – and the Grenadiers’ subsequent push to North’s 5 yard-line – had Gould wrestling ghosts of playoff losses past.

“It’s nightmares,” Gould said of what was flashing through his mind. “Yes. Yes. Absolutely it was.
“You’re just thinking let’s make the big play, but the quarterback’s so good. He spreads his receivers all over the place, and you’re just thinking ‘Oh man, not again.’”

Fortunately for their peace of mind, the teenagers on North’s defense don’t have as vivid memories of the North Stars’ playoff history. All they had to worry about was Meyer and his dynamo No. 1 receiver Matt McEnery – plenty to dread in their own right.

It was a dicey proposition, but Imbordino and the defense were up to it.

“When that ball’s up in the air, it’s a gut-wrenching feeling, but when he caught it and we had the ball, it was the best feeling in the world,” North linebacker Spencer Swarts said.

Swarts and junior defensive lineman Michael Claney were on the same wavelength Friday night, seemingly converging in the backfield every 10 plays or so to lay a nasty lick on Meyer.

Claney, filling in for unavailable standout Brian Pedersen the last couple weeks, acknowledges it hasn’t been easy becoming a key component of the defense under the extra-bright lights of playoff football. Claney let Meyer slip out of his grasp on the first series of the game but redeemed himself as the game unfolded.

“I was a little nervous at the beginning, I’m not going to lie, but then I started having a lot of fun,” Claney said.

If unbeaten Glenbard West wins today’s game against Rockton Hononegah, North will be a heavy underdog in next week’s quarterfinals. But the North Stars can give whoever their next opponent is their best shot knowing they have already made program history.

The metaphorical asterisk just vanished from an otherwise solid resume for Gould as North’s coach.

“As coaches, I think we all kind of felt that pressure, like ‘What do we have to do?’” Gould said. “I know after the last few years, I’m constantly thinking ‘What do we have to do different in the playoffs as far as practice and everything else?’

“But, no, it’s just keep chipping away at it. That’s what we told the guys, keep chipping away at it, and it will come.”

It came, but it sure didn’t come easy. A goofy fourth quarter that included a questionable pass interference penalty on North and, later, a double whammy of a botched punt recovery and personal foul on North weren’t easy on the nerves. Neither was that late fumble.

Thanks goodness Imbordino intervened.

“Perfect coverage he had on them,” Gould said. “He turned at the exact right moment you had to turn, went up for it the exact way you had to. It was picture-perfect.”

A once-in-a-decade moment, you could say.

• Jay Schwab is sports editor of The Chronicle. He can be reached at 630-845-5382 or jschwab@kcchronicle.com.

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