Justus Byrd carries Plainfield North past Joliet West

PLAINFIELD – Nearly everything clicked Friday night for Plainfield North in a 28-3 homecoming victory over Joliet West . After big wins over Plainfield South and Joliet West the past two weeks, the Tigers have put their 0-2 start behind them.

"I think we're starting to hit our stride," said North quarterback Justus Byrd, who was 12-for-20 passing for 188 yards and two touchdowns. He also scored a touchdown on the ground. "We've been improving every week."

The one blip on the radar for North (2-2) was a first-quarter interception by West's Scott Nowicki, who returned the ball to the North 11. Like the rest of the night, however, the North defense was stalwart and limited West (1-3) to a 28-yard field goal by Adrian Ramirez, which gave the visiting Tigers a 3-0 lead midway through the first quarter.

After that, it was all Plainfield North.

North got the ball near midfield after the kickoff, and three plays later Byrd connected with Amiel Clark, who had gotten behind the West defense, for a 30-yard touchdown and a 7-3 lead following the first of Omar Coleman's four extra-point kicks.

Joliet West faced fourth-and-9 from its own 48 late in the second quarter and attempted a fake punt, but the pass missed the mark and North took over. On second-and-11, Nowicki nearly made his second interception of the game but couldn't hang on and North kept the ball. After a 7-yard pass from Byrd to Coleman, the host Tigers faced a fourth-and-4. No worries, as Byrd launched a deep pass toward Darin Ashiru, who came down with the reception and fought his way to the 2-yard line. Byrd snuck it in from there on North's version of the Tush Push for a 14-3 lead with 1:06 to play in the first.

After a 3-and-out by West, North took over at its own 41. Byrd hit Coleman for a 21-yard gain, and after that it was running back Malik Jassim's turn. Jassim, who finished with 81 yards on 18 carries, got the ball on five straight plays, the last a 1-yard burst into the end zone for a 21-3 lead, which North took into halftime.

"We knew the deep ball would be there," Byrd said. "Their corners like to play tight and we thought we could get our receivers behind them. Amiel Clark did a great job of getting behind his guy on that touchdown."

The North defense was stifling all night, limiting West to 142 total yards. Defensive end Colin Meyers racked up 3.5 sacks as well as numerous pressures, while Kevin Wilson was also in the West backfield all night.

Plainfield North managed just one touchdown after halftime, and it came at the end of a time-consuming drive in the fourth quarter that chewed up more than six minutes off the clock. Jassim did a bulk of the damage, although receiver Devan Draughon took a jet sweep 8 yards for a first down, as well. On second-and-15 from the West 18, Byrd threw for Draughon in the left corner of the end zone, and Draughon made a terrific leaping catch to cap the scoring.

"This was a good win," North coach Anthony Imbordino said. "We cleaned things up on both offense and defense and the special teams played well. Joliet West has a lot of very good athletes on both sides and they can make things tough on teams.

"I think our confidence keeps building. Our receivers made some catches tonight that earlier in the season we dropped, so it was good to see them capitalize on their opportunities. Now we have to get ready for conference play. Records or rankings in the polls don't matter when you play conference games because they are a fight every week. We are playing better and we need to continue to improve."

Despite the final score, West coach Dan Tito saw plenty to be encouraged about.

"Getting the lead early gave us a boost," Tito said. "But, we have to keep that type of energy going the entire game. That was tough tonight. Coach Imbordino does a great job with their program and they have some great players. Their offensive line is very big and they kind of leaned on us tonight.

"Scott Nowicki played well tonight with the interception and almost getting a second one. Mohamed Kosh played well and so did Tom Piotrowski. And, of course, Micah McNair is always a force for us.

"We told the kids after the game that a new season starts now, the conference season. We're 0-0 in the conference. We've played three very strong programs in a row [Morris, Yorkville and Plainfield North], and playing those programs puts us in a position to be better when conference starts. We have a big target on our backs after winning the title last year, but that's what we want. We want to have those expectations. These are great kids and they have worked hard to give Joliet West those types of expectations, which they didn't always have."