North’s football team placed first in the DuKane conference, winning all seven of their conference games. The team ended their regular season with a record of 8-1.

North will play their first playoff game at home on Friday, Oct. 28 with a start time of 7:30 p.m. against Maine West.

“We got a great group of kids, our seniors are awesome,” said  Rob Pomazak, head football coach. “We really believe in each other.”

The team is hoping to continue this season’s success into the playoffs.

“I know for a fact we’re going to make a run and we’re going to win this,” said starting quarterback Will Vaske, senior. “I’ve got full confidence in our team. We’ve got the athletes to do it, we’ve got the depth to do it, so I think we’re a team to reckon with.”

The team ended the season with an eight-game win streak, only losing their first game.

“The first week obviously was a disappointment, but we kind of just told ourselves that we’re going to learn from it,” said Pomazak.

The team won every one of their games against teams they had lost to in the 2021 season. Many of the team’s players are returners from that season and played in those games.

“We kind of dubbed this season our revenge tour,” said Pomazak. “We were trying to take it week by week with these teams that have beaten us and just kind of knock them off one by one and that’s been fun for us to have that opportunity.”

Among those teams was Wheaton North, which had won state in the previous season and was undefeated going into the game. The team beat Wheaton North by a score of 22-21.

 “I always talk to the kids like we’re just trying to create moments for ourselves that we can remember later on,” said Pomazak. “That was just one of those moments where they were able to capture lightning in a bottle and savor that feeling.”

In their last regular season game, North played against Batavia. The team had lost against Batavia in the 2021 season in double overtime. This game also went into double overtime, but with North coming out on top by a score of 32-31.

“We knew we were going to finish out that game, even from halftime,” said Vaske. “It was just no doubt. I think that’s the key to our success. Just our belief in each other and our belief in the team.”