There’s no question that St. Charles East is a proponent of the Illinois High School Association’s playoff expansion in football.
Count senior running back Johnny Solano among the supporters.
“It was worth it,” Solano said after rushing for 158 yards and three touchdowns in the 17th-seeded Saints’ 42-21 road victory over 16th-seeded Elk Grove in the Class 6A opening round on Friday.
St. Charles East (4-6), which will visit top-seeded Harlem in the first round on Oct. 31, won its first playoff game since 2019 after ending the regular season with five straight losses in the DuKane Conference.
“Our last game, we had Geneva — they’re really good,” Solano said. “I feel like that helped us be a lot better this game. It made us prepared.”
St. Charles East center Troy DeMien, part of a stout offensive line that includes tackles Liam Barrett and Nolan Krzystofiak and guards Saxton Pairolero and Thorsten Fleps, highlighted the strength of schedule.
“I think the biggest thing is iron sharpens iron,” DeMien said. “We play in one of the best conferences in the state. We’re playing against guys who are top guys in the state. I think it really shows when we get out of the conference how much iron sharpens iron.”
St. Charles East showed it quickly, as Solano and quarterback Cruz Herrera led the team to a 28-7 halftime lead. On the other side of the ball, Christian Hirniak and Conner Landrey played bruising defense.
Escaping a near interception by the Grenadiers at their goal line, Herrera opened the scoring with his quick toss right to slot receiver Luca Munaretto, who ran the ball into the end zone from the 7-yard line.
Elk Grove (4-6) also looked good on its first possession, motoring 65 yards. Quarterback Luke Maher twice found running back Erik Sandoval for open screen passes in the right flat, setting up a 10-yard touchdown pass to Griffin Ewen right down the middle. Isaiah Albazi’s kick tied the game at 7-7 with 5:14 left in the first quarter.
But the Saints countered with 35 unanswered points. Herrera, who completed 13 of 20 passes for 102 yards, threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Hirniak before halftime and a 12-yarder to Aiden Quidayan for a 35-7 lead with 6:08 left in the third quarter. The Saints went up 42-7 on Solano’s 47-yard run with 11:31 left in the game.
“The theme of the last few weeks has been we’ve been really good for one half and not the other,” St. Charles East coach Nolan Possley said after earning his first playoff win.
“So to see them put the whole game together, that’s what we challenged them to do all week, and to see it that was great.”
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Elk Grove finished strong, as Maher threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Gomez with 2:11 to play. John D’Andrea then recovered Ewen’s onside kick, and Maher again found Gomez in the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown strike.
“Our coach (Danny O’Donnell) said it all week, this was probably the best week of practice we ever had as a group, as a family,” said Maher, who passed for 242 yards and three touchdowns.
“This group accepted me from the beginning, through the ups, through the downs. I didn’t have the greatest season, but no matter what, this group never gave up on me.”