High school football: Hampshire pulls away from Woodstock North in 2nd half

WOODSTOCK – Hampshire beat Woodstock North on its homecoming, 34-24.

The Whip-Purs (4-2) rode the strong arm of junior quarterback Jake Vincent and a number of talented receivers. Vincent threw for four touchdown passes, including two third-quarter strikes to Jake Manning of 51 and 41 yards. For the night, Vincent completed 18 of 25 throws for 223 yards to 6 different receivers.

Despite the offensive performance, Hampshire coach Mike Brasile was quick to credit his defense.

"Our defense played hard and kept to their assignments. They run a great option attack and coach (Jeff) Schroeder does a great job of adjusting series to series," Brasile said.

For Woodstock North (3-3), it was three turnovers that hurt, leading directly to 20 Hampshire points. North fumbled the opening kickoff with Hampshire recovering on the 11-yard line. From there, it took seven plays, with Xavier Bennett hauling in the touchdown pass from Vincent to start the scoring.

Despite going down 14-0 midway through the second quarter, North did not give up. Jacob Schmitt hauled in a 32-yard touchdown pass from Collin Mergl.

Mergl then intercepted Vincent's pass on the next possession. That turnover led to a 39-yard touchdown run by Brennen Ward. The 2-point conversion put Woodstock North up 16-14 at halftime.

It only took Hampshire three plays into the third period to take back the lead back on Manning first touchdown pass from Vincent.

"It was a total team victory tonight. The line really blocked well and gave me time to find my receivers," Vincent said

Woodstock North scored late on an 8-yard run by Randall Kline. Kline then completed the scoring with the 2-point conversion. Hampshire recovered North's onside kick and then ran out the clock.

"With Grayslake North losing and Prairie Ridge being the team right now, it looks like next week could be a conference title game," Brasile said. "So that is a lot of motivation for us. Hampshire High School has not won a conference title since the opening of the school and we entered the Fox Vally Conference."

Hampshire 34, Woodstock North 24

Hampshire 7 7 13 7 34

Woodstock North 0 16 0 8 24

How They Scored:

First Quarter

H - Bennett 9 yd pass from Vincent (Kielbasa Kick) 8:01

Second Quarter

H - Burke 15 yd pass from Vincent (Kielbasa Kick) 7:45

WN - Schmitt 32 yd pass from Mergl (Schmitt Run) 5:45

WN - Ward 39 run (Ward Run) 1:57

Third Quarter

H - Manning 51 yd pass from Vincent (Kielbasa Kick) 10:41

H - Manning 41 yd pass from Vincent (Pass Failed) 4:04

Fourth Quarter

H - Lund 49 run (Kielbasa Kick) 3:30

WN - Kline 8 run (Kline Run) :49

Individual Statistics

Rushing- Hampshire: Lund 15-97, Curran 7-18, Tuzak 1-5, Manning 1-1, Seliga 1-0, Vincent 5- minus 10 Total 30-111 Woodstock North: Busch 22-86, Ward 8-60, Mergl 7-45, Kline 3-18, Schmitt 5-2 Total 45-211

Passing- Hampshire: Vincent 18-25-1-223 yd Woodstock North: Mergl 3-7-1-69 yd

Receiving- Manning 6-118, Hornbeck 4-50, Bennett 4-26, Burke 2-21, Hicks 2-8 Total 18-223 Woodstock North: Schmitt 2-51, Busch 1-18 Total 3-69

Total Team Yards: Hampshire 334, Woodstock North 280

Sophomore Score: Hampshire 20, Woodstock North 18