Dukes Spoil Downers North's Homecoming

It was ’s homecoming Friday night, but York did all the celebrating.

The visiting Dukes used their high-powered offense, which has scored 249 points this season, to rout the Trojans 41-0 at Carstens Field in Downers Grove and remain unbeaten in West Suburban Conference Silver Division action with two weeks to go before a much-anticipated showdown with Glenbard West that likely will determine the league championship.

York (5-1, 3-0) amassed 465 yards of offense, 304 of which came on the ground. Running back Ken Boesenberg, an often-overlooked cog in the Dukes’ well-oiled machine, didn’t score but rushed for 134 yards on 13 carries.

“We like to establish the run game first and then evidently that opens up the passing game,” York quarterback Joe Lucca said. “We’ve got tall, fast, big receivers on the outside. They help us, and then Kenny Boesenberg in the backfield sets up the pass game for us. He definitely adds a spark.”

The return of Lucca, who missed last week’s 31-8 victory over Proviso West with a concussion, certainly sparked the Dukes, who have won five straight after opening the season with a 50-49 loss to Rolling Meadows.

Lucca completed 13 of 25 passes for 136 yards and three touchdowns, all to different receivers. The senior also had a 25-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and finished with 78 yards rushing on seven carries.

Lucca tossed TD passes of 14 yards to Jordan Preuss, 22 yards to Austin Wagner and a 1-yarder to Mike Despinich on the final play of the first half that gave York a 27-0 lead.

That last play was set up when Jake Rzeszutko intercepted quarterback Riley McGinnis and returned it 74 yards before being tackled at the Trojans 2 as time expired. But the Trojans were whistled for a face-mask penalty, giving the Dukes an untimed down that Lucca took advantage of by finding Despinich open in the back of the end zone. That play typified how ’s season has gone.

“I just told our kids if there’s three phases of a football game - that’s offense, defense and kicking game — you lost them all,” coach John Wander said. “You lost another one which is called being physical, (and) being ready to play from the get-go. That’s five phases and (York) capitalized on all five.”

Except for the Proviso West game, the Dukes have played both Lucca and junior backup Andrew Iwaszkiewicz under center and each has excelled. Iwaszkiewicz entered late in the third quarter and engineered York’s final two scoring drives, completing 4 of 5 passes for 25 yards, including a 4-yard TD pass to Despinich. He also scored on a 68-yard run to finish the scoring.

“Right now we’ve got three real special kids that are playing receiver and we’ve got a real good running back and things are going OK for us right now,” York coach Bill Lech said. “I knew what we were fully capable of on offense with those kids. The question was were we going to be able to protect and would we be able to get them the ball.

“Joe has really come on and Andrew is doing a real nice job of backing him up. Andrew played the whole game last week because Joe was hurt, but Joe was able to come back and he played real well today. He’s just making the right decisions.”

The Dukes defense also shined, holding McGinnis to four of 16 passing for 24 yards. Anthony Rada led the Trojans (1-5, 0-3) with 154 yards rushing on 21 carries, though 120 of those yards came in the second half after the outcome was decided and he suffered an ankle injury on the game’s final play.

“I thought we made strides after the first quarter of (the) LT” game, Wander said. “I thought we played our sister school () hard and I thought tonight we looked like Sister Teresa of the Blind.”