North Stars bidding for lucky 7

At the moment, St. Charles North might be lost in the shuffle amid the Tri-Cities football teams.

That's fine with coach Mark Gould.

He realizes that during the first two weeks of the season, North's crosstown rival and defending Upstate Eight Conference co-champion, St. Charles East, will get plenty of attention when it faces neighboring Batavia and Geneva.

But, he also knows success. In fact, along with Aurora Christian, the North Stars have the longest streak in the area for consecutive postseason appearances with six.

Now they'll try for No. 7.

"Last year I had to give a talk about what they'll read and this year they're not going to read much about us which is fine," Gould said. "It's nice that we don't have to worry about hype and expectations and they can just go to work. Everybody knows it's what counts at the end of the year and that's the goal."

While getting into the postseason is always a goal for the North Stars, they'd also like to win in Week 10 and beyond, something that's only occurred once in school history. Of course, being among the leaders in the Upstate Eight Conference is on the radar too.

"We have a very good nucleus of seniors who played last year and look real good," Gould said. "And we have a good group of juniors. This might be as much depth as we've ever had with kids fighting for opportunities. You can see it in practice."

Offensively, quarterback Nick Neari and running back Kyle Harmon are two key seniors who return along with junior center Matt Mautone.

Backup quarterback Sean McGushin could push Neari a bit, as well as spend time at tight end. Diversity in the backfield has been a major positive during Gould's tenure and fullback Jordan Huxtable and running back Eric Battle will likely contribute, while the athleticism of wide receiver Jonathan DeMoss will have opponents concerned.

"We lost three of our five offensive linemen to graduation so we've got to fill in there, but they're doing pretty good so far," Gould said. "The nice thing is we've got several guys who can play running back and then DeMoss has some good experience, and there's three or four guys fighting for positions."

Consistent defensive play seemed to plague the North Stars at times last fall, especially against some of the upper echelon teams in conference.

"We need to be more disciplined and consistent this year," Gould said. "We held some good teams last year and then got lit up a bit. We need to work on our positions and if we do I think we should be pretty good defensively. I'm looking forward to seeing this group in games."

Defensively, Trevor Dunne moves from the offensive line to defensive end. Other key returnees for the defensive unit include end Kasey Ro, back Mitchell Nemec, linebacker Kyle Pocci, free safety Mike Lefelstein and middle linebacker Jake Juriga, who undoubtedly should be one of the area's best defenders this fall.

"We're farther ahead right now than ever before," Gould said. "We're feeling good about getting the season started."