Glenbard North (0-1, 0-1 DuPage Valley) @ Waubonsie Valley (1-0, 1-0 DuPage Valley), 7:30PM.
Last week: Glenbard North lost to Naperville Central, 13-12; Waubonsie Valley beat Lake Park, 27-6
Storyline: Waubonsie Valley welcomes Glenbard North to Aurora with a 2-0 start overall and in the conference at stake.
A week ago, the Warriors got their DuPage Valley Conference debut off to a rocking start on their way to piling up 27 points against Lake Park.
Max Ihry’s 131 rushing yards and two TDs on 21 carries highlighted an offensive output for the Warriors that saw them rack up 334 total yards against Lake Park.
Meanwhile, Jack Connolly showed his wares at the quarterback position for the first time as a starter on his way to running eight times for 70 yards and a TD – a 74-yard jaunt.
Connolly’s long completion to sophomore receiver Charles Robinson set up Ihry’s first touchdown run, a 5-yarder that gave Waubonsie Valley a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.
Sophomore linebacker Kyle Schroeder made sure the Warriors’ defense, which allowed just 190 yards, shared in the fun by returning an interception 25 yards for a TD in the third quarter that increased their lead to 27-6.
Glenbard North, mindful of missing out on the postseason for the first time since 2002 a year ago, faces a must-win after dropping a 13-12 home decision to No. 5 Naperville Central last week.
Vittorio Tricase accounted for both Panther touchdowns in their loss to the Redhawks.
Glenbard North quarterback Shane Conway hit Tricase for a 70-yard TD pass in the second quarter while a 52-yard touchdown from Tricase in the third quarter gave Glenbard North a 12-7 lead.
All told, Tricase recorded 196 total yards against the Redhawks, with 112 of those 196 yards coming on the ground on 16 carries.
In his first career varsity start, Conway was five-of-15 passing for 104 yards with an interception for the Panthers.
Waubonsie Valley coach Paul Murphy on Glenbard North: “They’re going to play physical, which is what you expect in the DVC. They’re very, very aggressive on defense – just like our defense is – and they’re going to try the run the ball down your throat and hit you with play-action passes. They’ve got three backs that can hurt you and I know that Tricase kid, they’ll put him in the slot him and he ended up with a big pass against Naperville Central. We got to know where he’s at and we got to put pressure on (Conway).”
“I thought (Conway) managed the game pretty well for them. I don’t see any big mistakes from him in the game against Naperville Central. I think anytime you’re playing quality teams, you got to try to keep your turnovers to a minimum.
“(Glenbard North) lined up against Naperville Central in the college 4-3, which means their outside linebackers were inside the tight end alignment. So it’s going to be interesting to see how they want to defend the option. Do they put the defensive end on the quarterback and put the outside linebacker on the dive back? Or do they switch it up and crash the D-end to take the dive and they scrape the linebackers to take the quarterback? They’re going to do something in the secondary – either cornerback or their safety to try and take the pitch.
“So it’s going to be interesting to see. We’ve never played them before. But we’ll see how they want to play the defense. Now they also sat in a 3-4 against Naperville Central. They might come out and run the 3-4 to try to stop our option. That’s what we got to find out.”
