Ethan Plumb’s five touchdowns help St. Charles North get back atop the DuKane Conference with win over Geneva

GENEVA – Ethan Plumb has played in a lot of football games in his time at St. Charles North.

But when the four-year starting quarterback was asked where the Oct. 25 game against Geneva ranked for him all time, he knew his answer right away.

“It’s at the top because you’ve got to live in the moment,” Plumb said.

With a chance to secure a share of the DuKane Conference title, he did just that.

Plumb recorded five touchdowns (three rushing, two passing) to help the North Stars come from behind and take down the previously unbeaten Vikings 35-21 for their second conference title in three years.

St. Charles North earned a share of the conference title with Geneva and Batavia, which won its final game of the season against Glenbard North to move to 6-1 as well. It’s the second time the DuKane Conference title has been split. The first came in 2019, when Batavia shared the honors with Glenbard North.

“This team just fights like hell and I’m so proud,” Plumb said. “This entire week we were working for it and we just never gave up. We’re just never out of a game.”

With the game tied at 21-21 heading into the fourth quarter, St. Charles North coach Rob Pomazak put his trust in Plumb with the ball and Plumb delivered. The senior recorded two 5-yard rushing scores in the span of three minutes that gave the North Stars their first advantage in the game. Plumb ended the game with 106 rushing yards.

“This is his game,” Pomazak said. “He deserved every run. At the end of the game, I said that I want the ball going to nobody but him. He deserves this. He’s worked really hard.”

The North Stars (8-1, 6-1) entered halftime trailing 14-7 but managed to make up the deficit quickly when Plumb found Braden Harms for a 51-yard touchdown early in the third quarter. The North Stars managed another quick response later in the quarter with Plumb connecting with Keaton Reinke from 12 yards out only a minute after Geneva retook the lead.

“When you’re only down 14-7 at the half against a great team like Geneva, I just told the boys that we just needed to get it to a one-score game,” Pomazak said. “If we got it to a one-score game, then we got it.”

Along with the offense, the North Stars’ defense made some key plays down the stretch with Wyatt Brandt hopping on a fumble to set up Plumb’s final score and an interception from Reed Raczka to ice the game.

“We talked about working the ball on these guys because we saw they were a little lax,” Pomazak said. “They followed the game plan. And I thought that our defensive backfield played tremendously.”

The Vikings (8-1, 6-1) got out to a 14-0 lead in the second quarter thanks to two rushing touchdowns from quarterback Tony Chahino. The senior finished the game with 35 yards on the ground to go with 201 passing yards and an 11-yard passing score to Finnegan Weppner (four catches, 103 yards).

Despite the loss, Geneva ends the season sharing the honor of being DuKane Conference champions, its first conference title since 2010. While the hopes of an undefeated season are gone, coach Boone Thorgesen said the mindset is that with the playoffs on the horizon, its time for a clean slate.

“I told them that it didn’t matter what we did in this game. Everybody’s 0-0 in the playoffs,” Thorgesen said. “Obviously, we wanted to win this last one to be the outright conference champs, but it just didn’t happen and it wasn’t our night.”