There may be no better teacher than experience.
As the only two returning quarterbacks for Naperville-area teams coming into the year, Naperville Central senior Conor Joyce and Benet junior Jack Sznajder can attest to that.
Armed with the knowledge that an entire high school football season brings, Joyce and Sznajder each led his respective team to Week 1 road wins by using the hardened lessons they gleaned a year ago.
Joyce, coming off a year in which he guided the Redhawks to nine victories and a berth in the Class 8A state quarterfinals, admits he wasn’t at his sharpest at times Friday during a 13-12 Redhawks’ victory at Glenbard North.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game,” he said. “Obviously, with the turnovers and penalties that we had – it didn’t really help us do what we wanted to do on offense. But for the most part, we bounced back and we scored where we needed to and ultimately got the win against a good opponent. That’s what we’re taking away. We’re just going to learn from that stuff.”
Joyce was good when he had to be.
Refusing to let a pair of interceptions and a fumble inside the Glenbard North 10-yard line bog him down, he ended up 14-of-25 passing for 170 yards and a four-yard TD pass to Iowa-bound Emmanuel Rugamba.
The four-yard score to Rugamba, who caught eight balls for 89 yards, in the second quarter opened the game’s scoring and Joyce found Matt Lehmann for a couple long conversions in the second half.
Joyce connected with Lehmann for 39 yards on a second-and-33 to keep a third-quarter drive going and converted a fourth-and-21 from the Panthers’ 35 by finding Lehmann for 22 yards.
That third-quarter drive may have ended with his fumble, but Joyce’s chemistry with Lehmann may prove crucial going forward as opposing defenses figure out ways to deal with Rugamba.
“Manny played an outstanding game,” Joyce said. “They were having a hard time covering him and towards the end of the game, after he had already been tearing it up, then they started to kind of double him a little bit. That’s when Lehmann opened up a lot, as well. So those two were very good for us all night.”
Meanwhile, Sznajder nearly matched his entire touchdown total from 2014 in one night.
Sznajder threw for 211 yards and five touchdowns – four of them coming in a 35-point first half – as Benet rolled to a 42-21 victory at St. Laurence.
Sznajder found senior Will O’Grady four times for 90 yards and three TDs while he connected with Robert Bordignon four times for 63 yards and two scores.
“I’ve played with Will for my whole high school career,” Sznajder said. “I’ve played with him every year and with Rob – that goes all the way back to fifth grade. I’ve been playing with Rob ever since grade school, so we’ve had a long chemistry going on. We know each other really well. We know each other’s strengths, so that’s really helped us.”
All told, he completed 16 of the 24 passes he attempted against the Vikings’ defense to five different receivers.
“I felt a lot more comfortable than I did last year,” Sznajder said. “The game seemed like it really slowed down for me. I understand the pace of the game and how things go, so it was a really big help for me.”
