Young rode a dream season that came with an asterisk. Downers North proved the first time was not a fluke.
For the second consecutive year, the Trojans manhandled an opponent riding a 9-0 record and top-seed in the Class 7A state playoffs.
Quarterback Sebastian Calvino rushed for 133 yards and scored two touchdowns as the visiting Trojans used a grinding, ball-control offense and stiffling defense to knock out Young 28-0 in a first round state playoff game Friday night at Lane.
Downers North (6-4) advances to play WW South in a second round game next week in Wheaton.
The game illustrated the quality of depth of the West Suburban Silver, which sent five of its teams to the playoffs. Just like a year ago when the Trojans defeated Batavia 38-26, the Trojans’ 5-4 record was very deceiving.
The Trojans scored more points in the game’s opening 20 minutes than the Dolphins had surrendered in nine games. Calvino was the architect of the attack. He scored his ninth total touchdowns on the year since he took over the position for an injured Dave Edwards.
Big and physical, he punished the Dolphins’ interior with his read-option attack. “We felt as long as we didn’t put the ball on the ground, we’d be able to move the ball,” he said. “We started a lot running on the inside, and then that opened up the outside for us.”
Calvino’s only pass attempt was dropped on the Trojans’ first possession. Downers North only attempted two passes, both of them incomplete. Young could not stop the team’s powerful ground attack as Downers North gained 343 yards rushing.
Downers North seized control late in the first quarter. Calvino was the catalysat. His 19-yard burst around the left end set up the game’s opening touchdown. He bulldozed three Young defenders into the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown run on the final play of the first quarter.
Young failed to record a first down in the first half and was limited to -3 yards of total offense. On the ensuing play from scrimmage, Young fumbled and Downers North hybrid linebacker/defensive end Richard Olekanma recovered the loose ball at the Young 19-yard line.
Six plays later, Calvino dove around left end for a two-yard dive into the end zone. “I just felt confident out there, and just knew to run the offense,” he said.
“They started making adjustments to what we were doing, like putting more people in the box and that just opened our pitch attack,” he said.
Downers North back Charles Creamer proved the point when he took a beautiful pitch option and ran untouched 76-yards down the right sideline for a 21-0 lead with 3:20 remaining in the second quarter. Young’s defense came into the game with seven shutouts and having yielded just 18 points, or three touchdowns, on the year.
Creamer had 119 yards on eight carries for the Trojans.
“I just kept good pitch relationship there, and we just knew that, with the rain and the wind, it was going to be difficult to throw and than we wanted to control the ball and run and that’s what we did there,” Creamer said.
Downers North running back Kyle Leto (18 carries, 89 yards) ended the scoring with a 57-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.
Defensively, Downers North bottled up Young star runner Miles Baggett, limiting him to just 14 yards on six carries in the first half. Baggett burst through the hole for a 19-yard run on the Dolphins’ second play from scrimmage of the second half for their initial first down. Making matters worse, Baggett was knocked out of the game in the third quarter.
With starter David Craan still out with an injury, converted wide receiver Christian Everett played quarterback for just the second time this year. Young did not penetrate inside the Trojans’ 30-yard line until Everett’s scramble on the final play from scrimmage.
