Plainfield North bides its time against Rich Township, rolls to win in Class 8A first round

PLAINFIELD – It isn’t easy to rattle Plainfield North.

So the Tigers weren’t particularly concerned when visiting Rich Township threw a few different things at them in a Class 8A playoff opening-round matchup on Friday night.

The Tigers (10-0) eased into things and slowly but surely broke down a plucky Rich Township squad for a 48-12 victory. Plainfield North will face Lyons Township, a 26-17 winner over Naperville Central, in next weekend’s second round.

“It’s the playoffs. You always like to conceptualize matchups, but you never know with 16, 17 and 18-year old kids,” Plainfield North coach Anthony Imbordino said. “And you never know how they are going to respond, but we were pretty proud of them for doing what they did tonight.”

Rich Township did something that most opponents haven’t done all season against the Tigers’ defense, sustain drives. Although two drives in the first quarter were squelched inside the Plainfield North 30-yard line on turnovers on downs, it at least denied North many opportunities to even handle the football.

When the Tigers finally got it, they didn’t need it for very long. John St. Clair ripped off a 76-yard run on North’s first play from scrimmage and then scored on the next play from 4-yards out.

Rich Township put together another substantial drive that eventually died out again with a turnover on downs and the Raptors then managed to force a Plainfield North punt to keep the score at 7-0 at the end of the first quarter.

And while the Raptors weren’t scoring, they were logging a bunch of plays against a Tiger defense that frankly hadn’t been in that situation all that often this season.

Through it all, Plainfield North didn’t seem to be wilting, it just lacked for opportunity.

Those opportunities started to come midway through the second quarter.

St. Clair broke off a 63-yard touchdown run to put him near 200 yards on just six carries. The Tigers recognized that if St. Clair could get through the second level of an unorthodox Rich Township defensive alignment, there’d be plenty of green turf for him to run. St. Clair finished with 206 yards rushing.

“We knew that they had an odd defense coming in... and we knew we’d be able to run the ball,” St. Clair said. “They didn’t really have a safety all game, so if we got past the second level it was going to be daylight.”

Rich Township countered the second St. Clair touchdown with a score of its own as Raptor quarterback Myrion Hogue sprinted away from the Tiger defense for a 59-yard score.

But then Plainfield North showed that its ability to vary its offense can be extremely difficult to keep in check. After Rich Township finally made a few adjustments to try to keep St. Clair in check, the Tigers flipped the switch and went to the air.

Demir Ashiru found Shibu Mohammad twice for scores and added a third first-half passing touchdown to Sean Schlanser in a matter of minutes, which allowed Plainfield North to carry a 35-6 lead into the break.

Ashiru would find Schlanser for a second score early in the second half and Austin McCombs’ 7-yard rushing touchdown would set the running clock in motion.

“Now that the passing game is going, they can’t just jam the box on us,” St. Clair said. “If they want to pick a side, we’ll just do the other thing. We’ve got everything working now.”

Rich Township scored with under a minute left in the game to account for the final margin.