Another big night from Sean Ruisz and Quinn Durkin wasn’t enough to keep Sandburg unbeaten.
Ruisz threw for 246 yards and three touchdowns — all to Durkin — but host Naperville North rallied from 14 down in third quarter to overcome Sandburg 36-35 in overtime on Oct. 3.
“This was a tough one,” Eagles coach Sheamus Murphy said. “They had a running back (William Eloe) and he was a bowling ball. He had a really good game. It was a tale of two halves. We played a really, really good first half of football and didn’t play a good second half.
“It’s tough to lose – especially by one (point) in overtime — but I’m confident in our resilience as a group and in our senior leadership. We told the kids they had 24 hours to be upset about it and then we had to move on to Lockport. We’ve got to flush this tough loss and be ready for another physical brand of football with Lockport. We have to get back to our fundamentals and be ready to go.”
Ruisz finished 12 of 15 passing with TD throws to Durkin of 63, 9 and 64 yards. Durkin finished with four catches for 141 yards while Lucas Matykiewicz added six receptions for 81 yards.
“Quinn had himself another electric-type game and Ruisz probably had his best stat-line game of the season,” Murphy said. “He did a really nice job with the offensive operation. He was able to extend some drives with his legs and he really had a good game for us in the passing game.
“Quinn and Sean have been playing together forever. They have that connection and that chemistry and that’s something you can’t really teach or coach. They’ve just got that from all of their experience together. It’s been a lot of fun to watch.”
The last TD from Ruisz to Durkin gave the Eagles (5-1, 3-1 Southwest Valley Blue) a 28-14 lead with 25 seconds to play in the first half. After Naperville North pulled to within 28-21 with a late third-quarter TD, the Huskies drew level at 28-all on a touchdown with 5:49 remaining in regulation.
Sandburg scored first in the extra session on a 5-yard run by Ruisz. Drew Drzonek’s fifth PAT kick of the game made it 35-28 Eagles. After Naperville North scored a touchdown to make it 35-34, Eloe’s two-point conversion run provided the game-winning points.
Also chipping in for Sandburg was running back Luke Basiorka, who carried 13 times for 59 yards and scored on a 24-yard run with 5:21 to play in the second quarter for a 21-7 Sandburg lead.
“Luke’s running tough,” Murphy said. “He had a really nice touchdown run where he bulldozed over a couple of Naperville North tacklers.”
Andrew 56, Stagg 6: Josh Burke had a 97-yard interception return for a touchdown for Andrew (4-2, 2-1 Southwest Valley Red). Zaire Foster (87-yard kickoff return), Anthony Lipski (8-yard run), Troy Culbertson (51-yard fumble recovery) and Camden Maniatis (35-yard run) also scored for the Thunderbolts. Olaf Kozub had 84 rushing yards and a TD for Stagg (0-6, 0-4).
Chicago Christian 45, St. Edward 0: Josh Crawford scored three touchdowns including a 36-yard run as host Chicago Christian (2-4, 1-3 Chicagoland Christian) rolled. Tommy Gouwens scored on a punt return for the Knights.
Eisenhower 19, Reavis 13: Arafat Alsharif scored on a 3-yard run and Fernando Lopez recovered a fumble in the end zone for Reavis (4-2, 2-2 South Suburban Red).
Fenwick 41, St. Laurence 7: Noah Taylor (six carries, 27 yards, TD) accounted for the only score of the game for St. Laurence (4-2, 0-2 CCL/ESCC White).
Lyons 51, Proviso West 0: EJ Kuhlman carried 10 times for 67 yards and four TDs as Lyons (4-2, 1-2 West Suburban Silver) won easily. Caiden Kovel added a rushing TD while Brock Curtin (9 of 19 passing, 155 yards) threw a TD to Nick Linares.
Oak Forest 44, Shepard 21: Aarien Lee (11 carries, 101 yards) scored on a 7-yard run for Shepard (1-5). Lee also had four receptions for 37 yards, including a 30-yard TD from Billy Massey. Antonio McCarroll added 56 yards rushing on 12 attempts.
Providence 28, Marist 14: Tommy Hosty scored on runs of 1 and 6 yards for Marist (1-5, 0-2 CCL/ESCC Orange).
Richards 55, Argo 6: Pierre Ray Jr. returned a kickoff 67 yards and a punt 51 yards for touchdowns to pace Richards (5-1, 4-0 South Suburban Red). Noah Escobedo threw a 23-yard TD pass to Logan Sales and a 10-yard TD pass to Xavier Flores. Ahmad Buchanan scored on runs of 4 and 23 yards while Eric Jacobs (17-yard run) and Kam’ron Norwood (fumble recovery in the end zone) also had TDs for the Bulldogs. Argo (0-6, 0-4) scored on a 13-yard pass from Chance Sanders to Sebastian Krzanowski.
Riverside-Brookfield 21, Glenbard South 17: Braeden Novak’s 32-yard TD pass to Jayden Karas with 1:28 remaining lifted Riverside-Brookfield (6-0, 3-0 Upstate Eight East) to victory. Novak also threw TD passes of 30 yards and 40 yards to Xavier Mrozik-DeJesus.