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GENEVA – It came all the way down to the wire for Geneva.
With a 28-24 score in favor of the Vikings, Wheaton North drove the ball all the way down to the Geneva 13-yard line with only 41 seconds on the clock.
[ Photo store: Geneva vs. Wheaton North ]
After a delay of game penalty made it second down, Geneva brought the pressure. Sean Lane and Troy Velez got a big sack on Wheaton North quarterback Nick Johnson.
“Coach sent me in on a blitz and I told him I needed to get it done,” Velez said. “So I did it and I got it done.”
Two plays later, on fourth-and-28, Johnson put up a last-ditch Hail Mary in a final attempt to give the Falcons their third last-second victory of the season.
Geneva’s Talyn Taylor, who’s much more well known for his catching ability as a receiver, made sure the pass didn’t get into anyone’s hands.
“As soon as I saw that ball up in the air, I knew it was mine and I went to it,” said the Georgia commit, who had six catches for 167 yards and a touchdown on offense. “That was the No. 1 goal. They could not catch it, score anything. I didn’t even know it was fourth down and that made it even better.”
The two big stops on defense allowed Geneva (7-0, 5-0 DuKane Conference) to take a big exhale on the sideline as the Vikings kept their perfect season alive with the 28-24 win over the Falcons.
“This was a tremendous DuKane Conference football game,” Geneva coach Boone Thorgesen said. “Credit to Wheaton North, they’re a really physical team and they always give us trouble. They took it to us a little bit, but we found a way to win. We had faith in our defense in that final drive and we got it done.”
Wheaton North entered the final quarter with a 17-14 lead, marking the first time all season that the Falcons entered a fourth quarter leading and the Vikings trailed in a final period.
Geneva made sure to get out to a hot start in the final quarter with Velez, who primarily plays linebacker after playing on both sides of the ball last season, getting a two-yard rushing score to make it 21-17.
“I just took the feeling of knowing that I’ve done it before and been there before and just knew in that moment that I was going to get in at that moment,” Velez said.
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The lead would be short-lived for Geneva. Wheaton North running back Nik Schaafsma needed only two plays to put the Falcons back up 24-21 with a 50-yard rushing touchdown. The senior back finished the game with 154 yards on the ground, plus an 8-yard receiving touchdown in the second quarter.
“He’s really battling,” Wheaton North coach Joe Wardynski said. “He’s a senior that’s really come on here for his last year. He was a JV kid as a junior and he really prepared himself for a senior year and gave himself a chance to get out here and perform under the lights. I’m very happy for him because he’s done a great job.”
Geneva running back Michael Rumoro got the eventual game-winner with a two-yard score with 4:07 left in the game. He finished with 19 rushes for 80 yards and two scores along with 38 receiving yards.
After back-to-back big losses to Batavia and Wheaton Warrenville South, Wardynski said Wheaton North (3-4, 1-4) walked off the field thoroughly defeated in each of those games. After being in the game against Geneva all the way to the final seconds, he was very proud of the effort from the Falcons.
“Right now it stings. They know that we were close,” Wardynski said. “But I told them that the fact that it stings is a good thing because it wasn’t like this the last couple of weeks. So the fact that they battled for four quarters against a really good team, I think there’s something to build on.”