Metea Valley (2-4, 2-4 DuPage Valley) @ Wheaton Warrenville South (1-5, 1-5 DuPage Valley), 7:30 p.m.
Last week: Metea Valley lost to Lake Park, 21-12; Wheaton Warrenville South lost at Waubonsie Valley, 27-0
Storyline: With three weeks left in the regular season, the recipe for Metea Valley is simple.
Win out.
The Mustangs are on the brink of postseason elimination as they head to Red Grange Field to meet Wheaton Warrenville South for the first time.
In last week’s 21-12 home loss to Lake Park, the Mustangs got out to a quick 9-0 lead, courtesy of a Conner Lovely field goal and a two-yard TD run from Amiri Finner.
But the Lancers responded behind a pair of touchdown runs from quarterback Jaron Fields to take a 13-9 lead and got another TD run from Nate Faruzzi to close out the scoring.
Lovely, whose second field goal brought Metea Valley within 13-12 in the third quarter, threw for only 79 yards on 10-of-28 passing as the offense tallied 222 total yards.
Maurice Burkley continues to offer Lovely a quality running back to hand off to as Burkley ran for 115 yards on 21 carries against Lake Park.
On the year, Burkley has 320 rushing yards on 73 carries.
While Metea Valley still harbors postseason aspirations, Wheaton Warrenville South will be on the outside looking in on the postseason for the first time since 2012.
Last week’s 27-0 shutout loss at Waubonsie Valley saw the Tigers record only 135 total yards as they lost their fifth straight game since a season-opening victory over Wheaton North.
Against the Warriors, Tigers’ junior quarterback Matthew Dohse was three-of-11 passing for 80 yards and two interceptions while Jack Maher completed two of his five passes for 22 yards.
Ravaged by offensive injuries, Wheaton Warrenville South hasn’t scored more than 14 points in any game this year.
Metea Valley coach Ben Kleinhans on Wheaton Warrenville South: “I think they’re pretty similar to Lake Park, really. They play tough, physical defense and they’ve got a couple really good defensive ends. They’re very sound defensively. They tackle well. They’re physical.
“On offense, they’re kind of trying to find their way and have the one quarterback (Maher) back and the tailback back. Adds a little bit of an element.
“But they’re a physical, defensive football team and it’s going to be another tough game. I know they’re 1-5 and whatever, but they’re a talented football team that can beat us, for sure, if we don’t play with more energy and enthusiasm than we did last Friday.
“Looking at it in the present, we just need to get a win. We need a win because we need a win for this year, so it doesn’t matter who we were playing – it would be a huge win. The Wheaton South thing, the thing that I told the team, we’re not playing the Wheaton South teams of past years and the state champions. We’re playing the 2015 Wheaton South team and we got to go and just play that team and not get caught up in Red Grange Field and state championships and all the history that goes with playing them. That’s what’s really been our approach for all the schools. So we’ve got to just approach it as ‘It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. We need to win.’ It’s going to be big no matter who we beat – just for our season.
“So I think our kids are going to be pretty dialed in, but it’s exciting – just like playing Naperville Central for the first time. It’s a great atmosphere, great field, great high school environment and that’s fun. I think our kids enjoyed that. They played well in those type of games, so we’re always looking forward to that. It’s just another good DVC team and another good DVC program that we want to go and show that we belong in that group. It’s just another chance for us to do that.”
