The plan was simple.
Naperville North wanted to impose its will against winless Glenbard East and that is exactly what the Huskies did while posting a 48-13 victory against the Rams on Friday night in Naperville.
The Huskies rushed 65 times for 473 yards, which included seven rushing touchdowns by five different players as North won for the first time in three tries at home.
“We knew we could beat this team,” said Naperville North running back Desean Brown, who had 14 carries for 94 yards with two touchdowns. “We just had to come out and execute and we did that. With a team like that, you have to beat them down in the first quarter and we did. We came out with a good team effort.”
Fellow running back Sharad Crosby added 145 yards on 12 carries, including touchdown runs of 61 and 30 yards. Huskies quarterback Johnny Brown carried 16 times for 76 yards and a touchdown. Brown also completed 7 of 13 passes for 61 yards. Justin Williams added eight rushes for 25 yards and one score as the Huskies have posted consecutive wins after beginning DuPage Conference play with losses to both Wheaton schools.
The only real negative for Naperville North (3-3, 2-2) was that it lost running back Kendall Veluvolu (five rushes for 35 yards) to a left-ankle injury as the Huskies took a 20-0 lead in at halftime.
“We definitely know we can run the ball,” Brown said. “We did a good job of spreading the ball around to give everyone an opportunity and we had people making some big plays. We broke some big runs today and they couldn’t really stop us after that.”
Glenbard East coach John Walters agreed that Naperville North simply out-muscled his squad.
“When you have bodies that big going up against bodies that aren’t that big — our guys don’t have the size they do up front,” Walters said. “We wore down on the defensive line. They have a nice team and a bunch of nice running backs that can open some holes. Guess what? The dam is eventually going to break and that is what happened.”
Glenbard East (0-6, 0-4) scored its first touchdown late in the third quarter when quarterback Joe Kotch connected with receiver Dan Ryan for a 17-yard score. Vic Patrick Harris added the other score on a 92-yard kickoff return.
