Mike Mattson | Daily Press Forest Park’s Connor Bortolini breaks loose on a big run in Friday’s showdown at North Central. Bortolini ran for more than 300 yards to lead the Trojans to a 66-58 overtime victory.

POWERS — Forest Park coach Dave Graff asked his team one simple question after it knocked off North Central Friday night 66-58 in a thrilling overtime game.

“Can you hang with the big dogs?” Graff asked his huddled emotional team. “Absolutely, you can hang with the big dogs.”

The Trojans knocked off the top dogs — defending two-time eight-player state champion North Central — and snapped the Jets’ 28-game win streak.

They relied on power football and Connor Bortolini, who did his best Dan Nocerini impression as he rushed for 385 yards and seven touchdowns.

Bortolini scored the game-winner when he bolted 20 yards for a touchdown on Forest Park’s first play from scrimmage in overtime. He also ran in the two-point conversion run.

North Central’s win streak came to an end on their second play of overtime when Noah Gilner intercepted Hunter Riley’s pass.

“It feels great,” Bortolini said. “We wanted revenge from last year. We practiced pretty hard this week. We just kept pounding the ball and waited for them to get tired.”

North Central relied on big plays all night as Riley ran for one touchdown and threw five touchdown passes — four covering 52 yards or more.

The score was tied 36-36 at halftime and North Central led 50-44 entering the third quarter.

Forest Park scored a pair of TDs in the fourth quarter — a 25-yard run by Bortolini and a 49-yard run by Calvin Post, which tied the game at 58-58.

North Central was driving for the winning score late in the fourth quarter, but the drive stalled at the 37-yard line.

Forest Park won the toss in overtime and took the ball, with Bortolini scoring on the first play.

The Jets had trouble with Forest Park’s offensive line, which paved the way for Bortolini.

“(Bortolini) carried the rock all night and their offensive line did a great job,” Jets’ coach Kevin Bellefeuil said. “”They took it to us up front. We were hopeful that wouldn’t happen. We’ll have to look at the film and figure out how to stop that because, if things go the way they can, we might see this team again some time.

“They are a good football team. They are very strong up front. We stood up too much and they took it to us.”

Graff, whose team erased the bitter taste of last week’s 38-36 loss to Rapid River, praised his offensive line.

in the first half, which ended tied at 36-36, Bortolini scored on runs of 7, 22, 13 and 9 yards. He also threw a 15-yard TD pass to Tyler Peltoma, who got hurt in the game.

Trenton Schaff had a great start for the Jets, scoring their first two touchdowns on runs of 51 and 64 yards. He suffered an ankle injury and did not play most of the game.

Riley completed TD passes of 61 and 67 yards to Trent Holle and Shaun Gogolewski, respectively, and added a 60-yard strike to Travis Bentley in the second quarter.

In the third quarter, Bortolini scored on an 8 yard run, while Riley fired two more TD passes to Bentley from 12 yards and 52 yards to Lucas Dombrowski.

“It was a lot going on out there,” Bellefeuil said. “They would sustain jobs and we would score on a big play. We just didn’t have enough at the end.”

The summary:

First quarter

NC: Schaff 51 run, Riley run, 10:11

FP: Peltoma 15 pass from Bortolini, Bortolini run, 6:56

FP: Bortolini 7 run, pass failed, 2:08

NC: Schaff 64 run, run failed, 1:44

FP: Bortolini 22 run, pass failed, :03

Second quarter

NC: Riley 61 pass to Trent Holle, Riley pass to Dombrowski, 11:49

NC: Riley 67 pass to Gogolewski, run failed, 9:10

FP: Bortolini 13 run, Bortolini pass to Hedtke, 4:48

NC: Riley 60 pass to Bentley, Riley pass to Holle, 4:29

FP: Bortolini 9 run, Bortolini run, 1:11

Third quarter

FP: Bortolini 8 run, Bortolini pass to Logan,6:52

NC: Riley 12 pass to Bentley, pass failed, 4:03

NC: Riley 52 pass to Dombrowski, Riley run

Fourth quarter

FP; Bortolini 25 run, run failed, 11:25

NC: Riley 2 run, Riley pass to Poupore, 7:37

FP: Post 49 run, Post run, 5:31

Overtime

FP: Bortolini 20 run, Bortolini run