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Sports

Football: Addison Trail Dethrones Mustangs

Downers South's bid for fifth straight league title ended with a 20-14 loss Friday.

Downers Grove South’s reign atop the West Suburban Conference Gold Division is over.

The Mustangs’ bid for a fifth straight league title came to an end Friday night at the hands of host Addison Trail, which used stifling defense and just enough offense to pull off a 20-14 upset and its first conference crown since 2006.

The loss snapped Downers South’s 31-game conference winning streak and likely did considerable damage to its playoff seeding. While the Mustangs (8-1, 5-1) will still open the playoffs at home, it will be against a much stiffer opponent. Playoff pairings will be announced Saturday night at 8 p.m. on CSN Plus and CLTV.

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“It’s going to be this type of game from here on out because now you’re not going to get a 5-4 team [in the first round],” Downers South coach John Belskis said. “Now you’re going to get a team like this, so we’ve got to play better.”

Addison Trail (8-1, 6-0), which came into the contest having given up just 34 points, was terrific defensively, holding the Mustangs to just 65 yards and three first downs through three quarters.

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The Blazers’ defense scored the game’s first points with 9:13 left in the second quarter when defensive lineman Tom Caputo intercepted a pass from A.J. Simoncelli that deflected off the helmet of Mustang guard Mark Muench and returned it five yards for his first career touchdown.

“I just looked up and the ball was there,” Caputo said. “I was right next to the end zone so I had to get it in.

“Our defense as a unit, we play fast. That’s all we can ask for. We started strong and we finished strong.”

Downers South running back Josh Williams was limited to a season-low 59 yards on 21 carries, with no run longer than six yards, after averaging 237 yards in his previous eight contests. But the blame did not belong on Williams.

“There are just some things that we didn’t do offensively that made them look good, too,” Belskis said. “We just missed assignments. One play it was one guy, another play it was another guy.

“It’s like when the dam’s breaking and there are so many holes and you run out of fingers. Everybody takes their turn making a mistake and you just can’t get any fluidity on offense. But give credit where credit’s due. [The Blazers] played well tonight. They deserved to win the game.”

Downers South’s defense also shined, as DeAndre Washington, Danny Leach and John Wauer had interceptions. But the Mustangs failed to score on their first two trips into the red zone, turning the ball over on downs at the 10 on the first chance and missing a 35-yard field goal on the second. A third drive that started in Addison territory sputtered after a holding penalty.

Addison Trail put the game away in the fourth quarter when running back Anthony Messina scored twice, the first on a one-yard run that capped a 13-play, 80-yard drive – one of the few sustained marches by either side – and the second a 33-yard screen pass that made it 20-0 with 8:15 remaining in the fourth quarter.

The Mustangs mounted a belated comeback, with Williams scoring on a three-yard run with 5:02 left. The visitors then recovered an onside kick and two plays later, Simoncelli hit Marco Scalzetti [seven catches, 91 yards] on a 51-yard touchdown pass to bring Downers South within 20-14 at the 4:42 mark.

A second onside kick try was unsuccessful, and though the defense held to give the Mustangs the ball back with 3:39 left, their final drive ended when Addison’s Greg Schultz intercepted Simoncelli at the Downers 39 with 2:00 to go.

“We played one quarter of offense tonight,” Belskis said. “That’s all we did. You don’t win a game like this playing one quarter of offense.

“You need heroes in games like this and we didn’t have enough heroes. They had more heroes tonight.”

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