Comcast Game-of-the-Week Video Highlights: Naperville Central vs. Naperville North

For three quarters Friday night it looked as if the huge crowd was in store for another down-to-the-wire memorable Crosstown Classic.

The back-and-forth football classic at North Central College entered the final quarter of play with Naperville North on top 19-15 following a 10-yard touchdown run by North’s Danny Puknaitis on the final play of the third quarter.

But Naperville Central running back Matt Randolph — thanks in part to some solid blocking up front and a trio of Huskies turnovers — stole the spotlight in the final quarter by scoring the final three of his five touchdowns as the Redhawks stormed ahead 36-19 before prevailing 36-26.

“Our offensive line did a great job sealing off the edge and our defense kept bailing us all night with turnovers,” said Randolph, who was asked how this five-TD rushing night compares to one he had earlier against Glenbard East. “This is Naperville North. This is way bigger. We’ve been waiting for this game all year and this is huge.”

The Redhawks, who at 5-3 on the year have pretty much sealed a playoff berth, led 3-0 after one quarter and 9-6 at the half following Randolph’s first score, a 6-yarder. But North (5-3, 4-2) took a lead late in the third quarter on Puknaitis’ touchdown run that was set up after a Huskies punt was touched by a Redhawks player and then recovered by North.

But in the fourth quarter Randolph’s 58-yard touchdown run made it 22-19 Central and the Redhawks were ahead for good. Back-to-back interceptions by Pat Clark on pass attempts by Johnny Brown set the stage for the fourth and fifth Randolph scores of the night as the game got away from the Huskies in a hurry.

“You can’t turn it over six times,” said Huskies coach Sean Drendel, who lost quarterback Tyler Gehr to an injury Friday night that left the signal-calling to Brown for most of the second half. “We didn’t play as well as we can play.”

Puknaitis played plenty well for the Huskies, rushing for 119 yards and three touchdowns, but it was not enough on a night when Randolph was gaining 259 yards on 20 carries including TD runs of 6, 90, 58, 3 and 15 yards for the Redhawks, who improved to 4-2 in the DuPage Valley Conference. North fell to 4-2 in the DVC and out of the race for first place, which will now come down to either Wheaton North or Wheaton Warrenville South.

Enjoy these video highlights from Comcast's Game of the Week coverage.

Download the movie