Nathan Whitwell’s five second-half touchdowns helps Batavia pull away to 45-21 win over St. Charles North

BATAVIA – Batavia running back Nathan Whitwell knew what the plan was heading into the second half of the Sept. 20 game against St. Charles North.

With the Bulldogs trailing 14-3, the senior running back was told the plan for the second half was to pound the rock with straight drives to outside runs.

Apparently, he was more than OK with that plan.

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Whitwell finished with five touchdowns – all the scores coming in the second half – to help the Bulldogs secure a 45-21 victory over St. Charles North.

“It didn’t even feel real. It was just like, ‘How is this happening?’ ” Whitwell said. “It was crazy and I’m honestly not sure how it happened.”

Whitwell ended the night with 35 carries for 248 yards, 163 of the yards coming in the second half. It was his fourth consecutive 150-plus yard rushing performance and multi-touchdown effort of the season.

“I just think we got out of our heads,” Whitwell said. “We had to get out of our heads and play football like we know how to play. And that’s what really helped us the most.”

Whitwell’s first two scores came in the first six minutes of the second half to give Batavia a 17-14 lead, its first advantage in the game. The lead was short-lived as North quarterback Ethan Plumb found Keaton Reinke on the very next play for a 67-yard touchdown to make it 21-17.

But once the final quarter began, it was all Batavia (4-0, 2-0 DuKane Conference). Whitwell’s third score came from 25 yards out and gave the Bulldogs the lead for good. He added scores of 31 and 12 yards for five TDs on the night.

“He’s just so physically tough, and if he gets that extra yard, he’s just gone,” Batavia coach Dennis Piron said. “He’s not just a speed back, he’s a power back, too. He can get the hard yards and he can just pop out of a tussle because he just keeps grinding. He doesn’t want to go down and linemen absolutely love that.”

Piron said when his team went into the locker room at halftime, he talked to the offensive linemen about having less than 150 yards of offense.

“I wanted them to just go and grind their defense into the ground,” Piron said. “I knew they were capable of doing it and when they start to do it, they’ll do it from now on. And if we get clicking up front, it’s going to be great and they did just that. It was really pleasing to see.”

His talk not only helped get the run game going, but the passing game as well. Bodi Anderson finished the game completing 9-of-17 for 128 yards after completing only one of eight passes in the first half.

Running back Joell Holloman had both of the North Stars’ touchdowns in the first half. His first TD came on special teams on a 15-yard scoop and score on a mishandled punt. He also scored on a 30-yard rush down the middle of the field. Holloman finished with 115 yards on 19 carries.

Reinke had eight catches for 145 yards and a score for North (3-1, 1-1).

“It was just a back-and-forth game, but the wheels just kind of came off toward the end and we’ve got to figure that out and look at the film,” North coach Rob Pomazak said. “We just didn’t execute in the second half. We had a really good game plan. It was just a series of missed executions for us that we’ll have to look at and improve on.”