The York football team dropped a 24-21 West Suburban Conference Silver Division game to Oak Park-River Forest in Week 5 action in Oak Park.
The loss put York at 3-2 overall and 1-1 in WSC Silver play. The Dukes can clinch a playoff berth in the new, expanded IHSA playoff format with a win Friday at home against Hinsdale Central for homecoming.
“It was a tough one,” York coach Don Gelsomino said. “Penalties and turnovers will get you. That was kind of the story of the day. The penalties slowed some drives and kept a few going on both ends of it. If you have over 100 yards in penalties and you are a minus-three in the turnover battle, that is not a recipe to win football games.”
Oak Park-River Forest (3-2, 2-1) led 7-0 at halftime and 14-7 after three quarters.
York tied the game at 7-7 in the third quarter when Chris Georgas scored on a four-yard run. With Oak Park-River Forest leading 14-7 in the fourth quarter, York tied the game when Chris Winton caught a 13-yard touchdown pass from Zack Assaad.
The Huskies then scored 10 unanswered points to go up 24-14. Winton’s five-yard touchdown pass from Assaad provided the final margin.
“We were resilient,” Gelsomino said. “Our defense put up a good fight. They had a couple of short fields and we stopped them two times. I definitely liked that part of it. We have to clean up some mistakes, which has kind of been a recurring theme. We made a few too many mistakes. Teams like Oak Park — they have gotten better — will get you. They are battle-tested. We gave them a few too many chances and they took advantage of it.”
Assaad completed 19 of 30 passes for 154 yards and two touchdowns, while Georgas ran 21 times for 86 yards and a touchdown.
Anthony Massel caught seven passes for 52 yards. Winton caught four passes for 38 yards and two touchdowns, while Colton Heilig caught five passes for 15 yards and Georgas caught two passes for 39 yards. Assaad completed passes to five different receivers.
York held a 265-232 advantage in total yards and a 16-15 edge in first downs. York also converted 8 of 13 third-down attempts, while Oak Park-River Forest was 1-for-8 on third down. However, York committed three turnovers. OPRF had no turners.
Defensively, Tommy Hosler led York with 10 tackles (2.5 for loss), two sacks and one quarterback hurry. Greg Witruk had 10 tackles (1 for loss) and Owen Roberts (2 tackles for loss) and Michael Pfleeger (1 tackle for loss) each had eight tackles. Matt Young finished with seven tackles.
Blake Yankowski had 0.5 tackles for loss and one pass breakup, while Brayden Byford had 0.5 tackles for loss. Caden Bialecki had six tackles and one pass breakup, while Aidan Allen also had six tackles.
“We have a lot of talent and will keep working and get better,” Gelsomino said. “We have four tough games coming up in the conference. We’ll see if we can get it all together. If we do, we will be just fine.”
York is tied for fourth currently in the WSC Sliver with Lyons Township (4-1, 1-1)
“Downers North and Glenbard West are battling and LT was undefeated and Glenbard West just beat them,” Gelsomino pointed out. “There has been a lot of back and forth with the teams in the conference. I think it’s one of those years where it’s still anybody’s game. You look at a lot of scores and think who will be the team that is going to go up to the top. There are still a lot of teams fighting for it.”
