Wildkits Win, And Believe They're In

Football teams with zero or one loss at this point in the season can be certain they'll land a spot in the Illinois High School Association state playoffs.

For everyone else, it's still just conjecture. But Evanston's 28-7 victory at Niles North Friday night felt like an invitation to the playoff party for the Wildkits.

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The IHSA's decision prior to the season to expand the 8-class playoffs to a total of 384 teams caused some of the so-called experts to guess that even a team with just three wins might qualify for the postseason.

Friday's win lifted the Kits to 5-2 on the season --- and five wins was enough to qualify in just about every year in the past under other playoff scenarios.

That was good enough for Evanston head coach Miles Osei and his players, who pulled the plug on Niles North's electric offense in the Central Suburban League crossover matchup.

On one hand, Osei has said from the start of the season that just qualifying for the playoffs wasn't Evanston's goal, that the goal was to WIN a playoff game. On the other hand, the coach has avoided talk about the playoffs for the most part until the program receives an official invitation when the IHSA brackets are revealed in a couple of weeks.

But Osei's brief remarks to the players Friday in the postgame huddle referred to the season having at least three weeks to go --- not two.

"The players know what's going on. I'm not going to lie to them," Osei said. "Five wins should get us in, but we're not just satisfied to get in. We play two playoff teams (Maine South and New Trier) in the next two weeks, so our playoffs start next week.

"We still have to get way better. We still have some things to clean up. But I'm proud of the way we finished tonight. Niles North has put up a lot of points this year (averaging 37 points per game), but our preparation on defense was pretty solid this week. And it makes a big difference when you're able to get off the field on third down, like we did tonight."

The Vikings, now 5-2, entered Friday's contest having scored at least 28 points in five of their six games. But the Wildkits contained quarterback Adonis Williams and the only big play they surrendered was a 52-yard touchdown dash by Isaac Stan on North's fifth play from scrimmage.

Williams totaled 90 yards on 27 rushing attempts, was sacked three times and completed just 7-of-19 for 39 yards passing for the losers.

Evanston quarterbacks T.J. Gant and Aiden Payne both contributed a touchdown pass, and Sean Hopson Jr. and Nate Osayande added rushing touchdowns in a team effort on offense.

For the defense, it was a case of bend but don't break as the Vikings piled up 17 first downs to 11 for ETHS, but only sniffed the end zone once.

Senior linebacker Michael Hatchett turned in a pair of game-changing plays all by himself. His fumble recovery early in the second quarter set up a short 34-yard scoring drive for the visitors that climaxed with a 2-yard TD run by Osayande that made it 14-7.

But Hatchett's biggest contribution came on the subsequent kickoff return. He chased down Stan and knocked him out of bounds with a last-man tackle at the 15 yard line, and North never did score thanks to quarterback sacks by Kamryn Farlow on and Hatchett on consecutive plays.

"He (Stan) wasn't that fast," Hatchett kidded. "Something inside of me just said I couldn't let him score, so I put the jets on. I knew he couldn't out-run me.

"We knew we needed a win tonight to get into the playoffs and we had a great week of practice. We were more locked in and just really executed well. We contained their quarterback outside and let our hitters fill the holes inside. He couldn't go anywhere --- or do anything."

Osei agreed that Hatchett's tackle was a game-changer.

"Michael always plays with a great amount of effort and he's a spark for our defensive unit," said the ETHS coach. "He gives a 100 percent every game, and when you do that, good things happen.

"Their (Niles North) mentality seemed to be that we'll just outscore you, and our defense did a good job of rising to that challenge."

Gant's big throw of the night was a 60-yard bomb to Farlow to boost the ETHS advantage to 21-7 at the 3:36 mark of the second quarter. Farlow actually started the game at quarterback and rushed for 33 yards, while Gant's passing numbers saw the junior complete 6-of-11 tries for 115 yards.
Payne took over as the signal-caller in the second half and sealed the victory with a 38-yard TD strike to Justin Johnson early in the fourth quarter. That play came after a terrible 6-yard punt by North's Williams that set the Kits up at the Viking 49.