Dogs’ defense keeps Storm at bay
DAILY HERALD SUBURBAN GAME OF THE WEEK NO. 13 BATAVIA 10, NO. 22 SOUTH ELGIN 7
Something had to give when high- powered South Elgin traveled to stingy Batavia on Friday night — and not just because both teams entered with perfect 6- 0 records.
Defense was the key on a wet night at Bulldog Stadium. Batavia held South Elgin to 11 first downs and 152 yards of offense in a 10- 7 Upstate Eight Conference crossover victory.
“I feel we have a championshipcaliber defense, week in and week out,” Batavia coach Dennis Piron said. “It’s very hard to score on us.”
Defensive lineman Ethan Towers had a sack and helped apply constant pressure on South Elgin quarterback Nate Gomez all night. Gomez was 11- for- 20 for 102 yards and had two interceptions.
“He’s a good quarterback, very shifty,” Towers said. “We kept him contained in the box and every time he tried to set his feet he really couldn’t. We wanted to take their No. 1 player out of the game.”
South Elgin’s defense also was up to the task. They were on the field nearly the entire first quarter but held Batavia twice on fourth down inside their own 27- yard line to keep the game scoreless.
Batavia got on the board late in the first half. Art Taylor capped an 11- play, 67- yard drive with a oneyard touchdown run. Jack Carlson added the point after for a 7- 0 lead with 3: 28 left in the first half.
Batavia converted a pair of short third downs on the drive while South Elgin found itself in third- and- longs much of the night.
“We really struggled to stay on schedule,” South Elgin coach Pat Pistorio said. “We found ourselves in a variety of bizarre downs and distances.”
Carlson gave Batavia a twoscore lead with a 23- yard field goal with 9: 55 left in the fourth quarter. That proved to be a big kick when Gomez threw a six- yard pass to Pierre Toussaint with 2: 58 remaining. Gomez set up the touchdown with a 36- yard pass to JaronWells on a controversial catch that Batavia thought it had intercepted.
The Storm followed with an onside kick but couldn’t recover. The Bulldogs picked up two first downs to run out the clock, the second one on a controversial call. The Storm thought they stopped quarterback Riley Cooper on a fourth- and- one play with 1: 07 left.
“I thought we had it at the end,” Pistorio said of the stop. “I know earlier in the game there were some issues with the chains. We can’t rely on everything to go our way, especially on the road. We’ll learn from it and improve.”
Jeremiah Evers led a balanced rushing attack with 58 yards on 14 carries for the Bulldogs. Formore suburban coverage, go to football. dailyherald. com.