It’s senior night for Naperville North football as they host Sandburg in the regular season finale. The Huskies enter after beating Homewood Flossmoor in a thrilling overtime game, while Sandburg lost to Naperville Central. Both teams enter playoff eligible and are looking to improve their seeding going into the postseason. This highlight is sponsored by BMO.
Jacob Bell and Anthony Shelton start the night with passing touchdowns for Naperville North and Sandburg
First play of the game, Jacob Bell throws it right to Brock Pettaway and the race is on toward the endzone. Pettaway makes a few miss and gets taken out of bounds at the two-yard line for a 63-yard catch and run.
A few plays later, Jacob Bell rolls right and throws across to Nick Manzardo who’s in for the touchdown. North leads 7-0 early.
Sandburg comes right back. On the first play of their drive, Anthony Shelton finds Charlie Snoreck over the middle, who gets past the defense before being tripped up at midfield for a 29-yard gain.
The drive would go down to the red zone where Shelton throws backward to Quinn Durkin and he pushes into the endzone for the touchdown to tie it up at seven.
Naperville North football adds two more scores to go up 17-14 at halftime
A couple of North possessions later, Bell takes the ball and pumps before throwing it deep to Quinn Morris who extends and makes the catch in the endzone. The 35-yard touchdown bomb puts North back in front, 14-7.
Now tied at 14, on the next Huskie drive, they are forced to punt but it’s blocked by Jaden Weaver. The ball bounces at the 25 to give Sandburg quality field position before the half.
However, on the Sandburg drive, Shelton looks to the endzone but his pass is picked off by Edward Mumford who gives the Huskie defense a much-needed takeaway.
On Sandburgs next possession, Shelton goes deep again into tight coverage and it’s Mumford again with the interception. He brings it out to midfield where the Huskies kick a field goal and go up 17-14 at the half.
Bell connects to Finnian Bretag but Sandburg retakes the lead with strong running
In the third, North forces a punt, and the ball bounces to Zach Mally at midfield. The Huskies evades a handful of Eagles and pushes deep into Sandburg territory for a 24-yard punt return.
North capitalizes a few plays later, as Bell throws deep again for Finnian Bretag. The tight end makes the catch through contact and crosses the goal line. The Huskies are up 24-14 to open the third.
Sandburg storms back and is now down 24-21 as their run game makes an impact. Luke Basiorka takes the rock and runs past the defense into Huskie territory before finally being brought down inside Huskie territory.
Now down in the red zone, Basiorka pushes up the left side and rumbles his way in for an 18-yard touchdown run to put the Eagles up 28-24.
The Huskie defense steps up and Bell seals the deal with his fifth passing touchdown
After a touchdown to give North a 31-28 lead, the Huskie defense steps up. Shelton looks over the middle but he throws another interception, this time to Huskie Aidan Pabarja. It’s one of five interceptions thrown by Sandburg on the night.
On the ensuing drive in the fourth, the offense converts as Bell throws to the back of the endzone where Ian MacConnachie comes down with it in bounds for the score. Both teams would trade points but Naperville North football comes out on top with a 44-34 triumph over Sandburg. The Huskies finish the regular season at 7-2 and await playoff seeding.
For more prep sports highlights, visit the Naperville Sports Weekly page!
