Redhawks survive Panthers 
Daily Herald Report
Posted on October 07, 2000 

First Glenbard North broke Naperville Central's season shutout streak.

Then it gave the state's top-ranked Class 6A team a major scare.

But in the end, Naperville Central remained unbeaten by edging upset-minded
Glenbard North 31-30 in a DuPage Valley thriller Friday in Carol Stream.

 
Pictures from Daily Herald photo archives.

"Oh man," said Naperville Central's Kyle Griffith, who ran for 176 yards on 29
carries. "Both teams played so hard. There were so many emotions. They broke
our shutout, but our team fought so hard tonight." 

Glenbard North (4-3, 2-3) moved ahead of the Redhawks (7-0, 5-0) three
times in the game, the final coming when Brain Mitchel (145 yards and 3 TDs on
26 attempts) ran for a 2-point conversion to put his team up 24-23 with 6:08
left. The Panthers drove 56 yards on 9 players, scoring a touchdown when Dom
Demma completed a 23-yard pass to Mike Giampa in the right corner of the
end zone on a fourth-and-2 play.

After being stopped in three plays, the Redhawks received the ball again and
marched 55 yards on 6 plays, scoring on a 5-yard touchdown run by Matt
Yellin. Phil Horvath completed a 2-point conversion pass on a fade to Kevin
Noel to give Naperville Central a 31-24 lead with 1:32 remaining.

Glenbard North answered by moving the ball 57 yards on six plays, scoring on
a Mitchell 7-yard run to pull within 31-30 with 47 seconds left. As they have
done most of the season because of a lack of confidence in their kicking game,
the Panthers tried a 2-point conversion but failed when a pass fell incomplete as
they were called for an illegal man downfield penalty.

On its first possession, Glenbard North took an 8-0 lead on a 31-yard TD dash
by Mitchell and a Rocco Gapastione 2-point run. But Naperville Central
answered with touchdown runs of 1 yard by Griffith and 2 yards by Yellin for a
13-8 halftime lead.