Belvidere North varsity football team defeats Rockford East

By Kaila Olsen

Reporter

ROCKFORD – Belvidere North, the Varsity Blue Thunder Boys, traveled to East High School to face Rockford East on the night of Friday, Oct. 16. Belvidere North went into the game with a record of 5-2, playing against Rockford East (ERabs) with a record of 1-6.

Both teams played hard for the win and even harder to stay warm with the temperature of 40 degrees. In the first 12 minutes of the first quarter East scored 24 points, and Belvidere North came back to score 15 points during the second quarter.

With only seven seconds left in the first half, and Belvidere North on their last down, #8, Logan Dunham, was able to run in a six yard touchdown (TD), making the score 24-22(East).

The second half began with excitement when Belvidere North scored by kicking a field goal, and then recovering the ball right after when an East player fumbled. However, they were unable to score on this play.

The next score was made by Belvidere North’s #7, Jason Rogers, as he ran a seven yard TD with 4:37 left in the third quarter. The Thunder Boys finally took the lead for the first time in the game with a score of 24-32. The start of the fourth quarter began with a fumble on an East play and Belvidere North recovered the ball on their own 48 yard line, but couldn’t bring it in for a score.

The ball went back to East and resulted in yet another fumble, recovered again by Belvidere North.  The Thunder Boys made use of this ball.

Quarterback, #13, Bennett Ocono, threw a TD pass to Jason Rogers, making the score 24-39 for a Belvidere North win!

“We showed team character, after giving up 24 in the first half,” Jarad Cantu, a Belvidere North player, stated after the game.

Jeff Beck, Belvidere North’s head coach, also said that he wasn’t happy with the first 12 to 14 minutes of the game but said they did “a good job at fighting back.”

Belvidere North Blue Thunder will play Rockford’s Boylan Catholic High School at home on Friday, Oct, 23 at 7:15 p.m.