McCluer North Football Clinches Suburban North Conference

If made any mistakes, they were difficult to notice Friday night when the Stars played at Ritenour.

North quickly started on offense, killed Huskies drives on defense and easily defeated Ritenour 43-6 to win the Suburban North Conference with a perfect 7-0 conference record.

The Stars finished with a 3-0 record in Class 6 District play and should meet Lafayette at home on Nov. 5 in a sectional game. earlier in this season.

McCluer North (9-1) scored on its first three possessions and set the tempo for the entire game.

"We came out fast, and I liked that," Stars coach Jim Schottmueller said. "Galen (Brown) made some nice audibles, about five of them, within our first 11 plays, and he did a great job. We didn't know if we could move the ball on them. They're a very good team. We got a little sloppy at times, but the fast start really helped us."

The Stars struck quickly on their first drive taking only seven plays, aided by two Huskies penalties, when Antwaun Williams scored on a 61-yard run. Williams led the Stars on the ground with 125 yards on 14 carries. Galen Brown hit Demecho Crawford for the two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead at 10 minutes, 13 seconds.

On the next series, Terrance Holliman picked off a Terrance Hollins-White pass at the 35 and killed early momentum for Ritenour.

"They moved the ball pretty well on us, and we couldn't get off the field," Ritenour coach Hoyt Gregory said. "We have five or six turnovers and that kind of put us behind the eight ball."

Brown wasted little time hitting Rodja Harvey on the third play of the drive on a nice 24-yard pass to the right corner of the end zone. hit the extra point after for a 15-0 lead at 8:21.

Just when Ritenour started to get back into the game, Harvey intercepted a Hollins-White pass on the 48. North turned that into another score on a six-play drive when Brown connected with Harvey for a second time from 19 yards. Schulz hit the kick, and the Stars were up 22-0 with 2:58 left in the first quarter.

"Galen and Harvey have been working together for about three years on that," Schottmueller said. "They're getting better and better. The thing I like about Galen is that he goes through his reads and he checks down and he just doesn't throw to one receiver. Every single one of our receivers catches the ball."

The Huskies started to move the ball again late in the quarter, but a fumble recovery by Jordon Harold at the 50 stopped the drive. The Stars’ defense again stalled a Ritenour drive in the second quarter when Earl Cozart sacked Hollins-White at the 30. He finished with three sacks, and Jones had two sacks.

North took over on downs and scored on an 11-play drive when Brown and Harvey hooked up again from nine yards making it 29-0 with 3:01 left in the half.

"It's all about connection," Brown said. "He runs such good routes, and we always connect."

Gregory said, "That was the first time we were ever behind at halftime this season. I think the (Hazelwood) Central game took a lot out of us last week."

With the Huskies driving in the opening series of the third quarter, Cozart picked up a Hollins-White fumble and scored on a 60-yard run for a 36-0 lead with 8:49 remaining.

"The defense played well once again," Schottmueller said. "We saw them play (Hazelwood) Central, and they played deep and we tried to do that."

North scored for the final time late in the third when Williams completed a 26-yard draw play at 4:20.

"We wanted to set the tempo," Brown said. "It was a playoff atmosphere."