By Jack Lydon
The half time score was Belvidere North 17, Amundsen 0.
With the halftime score Belvidern North 17 and Amundsen 0, Amundsen head football coach Nick Olson said on the sideline just before the start of the second half, “Twenty-one to seventeen. Write it down, twenty-one to seventeen is the final score.”
He said it such conviction, and given the enthusiasm of his players, this reporter wasn’t sure he was wrong.
He was right about the Amundsen part, just not the Belvidere North part. The Amundsen Vikings lost to the Belvidere North 38-20 on Friday night in IHSA 6A first round playoff game.
As has been the case in recent games with the Vikings, early mistakes put them behind. Behind 7-0 after Belvidere North scored on 27-yard run around the left end by Belvidere North senior running back Joseph Brown, the Vikings were moving the ball when mishap struck.
With first and ten on their own thirty-seven, Amundsen sophomore quarterback Smith Beeson took the snap and handed the ball to the receiver in motion, except the receiver didn’t take it. Beeson dutifully continued with his fake dive up the middle. But the ball was left behind by both would be runners. No one on field seemed to notice the ball lying on the turf at midfield.
After what felt like a prison sentence, the Belvidere North defenders noticed and jumped on the ball.
It wasn’t the end. The Vikings defense held after the turnover but they couldn’t hold on the next drive. The Blue Thunder scored a second touchdown on a two-yard quarterback sneak with 3:27 left in the first quarter. The Vikings drove the field late in the second quarter but missed a field goal try.
Getting the ball back with under a minute to go in the half, the Blue Thunder and moved into Amundsen territory for their own field goal try. Alan Perez’s 38 yarder was good making the halftime score 17-0.
The third quarter was all Belvidere who brought the score to 31-0.
The remarkable part about this whole game was that there was no quit in Amundsen at any point. Down 31-0 late in the third quarter and the game clearly out of reach, Nick Olson’s Vikings were playing with the same focus and energy they had when they off the bus.
The wind died down a little in the fourth quarter and Amundsen junior quarterback Elmir Gjeka connected on a beautiful deep ball to junior wide receiver Edwin Soto who raced up the Amundsen sideline for a 68-yard touchdown.
The Vikings were not done and added two more touchdowns bringing the final score to 38-20.
The mood of the Amundsen Vikings and their fired-up coach Nick Olson after the game was parts angry, respectful, defiant and wanting a rematch, like a boxer wanting to keep fighting after having been knocked down.
“They came out and they executed. We were just sloppy on tackling tonight. Another week of poor execution,” Olson said after the game.
“I felt really good about the week of practice. The kids really responded from the lost [to Lane] last Friday night. My fellow coaches and I had a really good game plan. Tonight came down to missed tackles and missed opportunities.”
Belvidere North made few mistakes and knew what they wanted to do—run the ball. That they did.
“They passed it a hand full of times. We knew they ran a Wing T offense. They wanted to pound the rock and run it down our throat,” Olson continued.
“We felt like we had a really good game plan to stop it. Our players were there. Their players made the plays. That’s what it came down to.”
The Vikings have a bright future. “We finished in fifth play [in the sixteen team] Red Division, just behind Lane. They thought we would just come [into the Red] and get walked on. We played a lot of Blue and White [division] football over the last ten years. We are playing against 7A and 8A schools, Taft and Lane Tech, that have almost triple our enrollment,” Olson said about moving up into the CPL Red Division.
“But we are not scared of hard work here at Amundsen. Our message in the off season is ‘close the gap.’ We know other teams are going to have more players. We know other teams are going to have better athletes. We are going to close the gap by working really hard.”
Belvidere North moves on to the second round and will face either Wauconda or Grant.
Amundsen moves on to the Prep Bowl playoffs next week.
One can find another story and photos from the game at: https://www.rrstar.com/picture-gallery/sports/2023/10/28/photos-belvidere-high-school-football-defeats-amundsen-38-20/71357151007/
