After Batavia and Glenbard North battled through a close first half, the second half was all Bulldogs. Batavia outscored the visiting Panthers 29-6 after halftime to win their DuKane Conference opener 41-13.

Henry Hahn scored three touchdowns for Batavia (2-1, 1-0).

Batavia led 12-7 at halftime. Momentum appeared to swing just after halftime when Batavia recovered an onside kick. On the next play, Michael Vander Luitgaren found Thomas Prescott wide open behind the defense for a 49-yard touchdown strike.

After a defensive stop, Vander Luitgaren connected with Brennon Zeng for another score to make it 26-7.

The onside kick came as a surprise even to most of those on the Batavia sidelines.

“Yes, we did,” said Bulldogs coach Dennis Piron when asked if the ploy was planned in advance, “But no one really knew, just me and the coach, so it was fine.”

The Bulldogs also pounded the ball on the ground with their running back tandem of Preston Brummel and Hahn. Hahn ran for 88 yards and a pair of scores while Brummel added 98 yards on the ground. Jabari Buckley’s only carry of the night produced a fourth-quarter touchdown.

Glenbard North (2-1, 0-1) kept the game close in the first half. The Bulldogs couldn’t stop the combination of quarterback Kyle Melody and receiver Zechariah Morris. They combined for five completions for 88 yards, with four of those coming before halftime.

But it was Jayvion Todd who gave the Panthers their only lead by hauling in a throw from Melody and taking it 62 yards for a touchdown.

Melody finished 13 of 20 for 184 yards. Donato Gatses added 82 yards on the ground, including a touchdown.

“Glenbard North is a really good team,” Piron said. “They have a lot of weapons and they’re really scary to defend every play.

“We did some things we needed them to do perfectly and they did.”

The Bulldogs came out prepared to outmuscle the visitors from Carol Stream.

“We just came out knowing we had to be physical and raise the bar,” Brummel said. “We knew that every year this team is a physical team and we expected that. In the end we were more physical than them.”

A little finesse didn’t hurt, either, such as Vander Luitgaren completing 15 of 20 passes for 160 yards, including touchdowns to Prescott, Zeng and Hahn. In all, he found seven receivers. Darin Ashiru had five catches for 59 yards.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20250912/prep-football/batavia-hits-its-stride-in-second-half-pulls-away-from-glenbard-north/