No. 22 Waubonsie Valley (4-2, 4-2 DuPage Valley) @ East Aurora (1-5, 0-4 Upstate Eight Valley), 7:30 p.m.
Last week: Waubonsie Valley beat Wheaton Warrenville South, 27-0; East Aurora lost to Bartlett, 41-8
Storyline: Spurred on by its first victory over Wheaton Warrenville South since 2001, Waubonsie Valley heads to Aurora for its lone nonconference game of the year.
Behind Max Ihry’s 222 rushing yards and two TDs on 14 carries and Ihry’s 54-yard interception return, the Warriors shut out the Tigers, 27-0.
The Warriors accumulated 303 total yards while their young and still emerging defense held the Tigers to just 135 total yards and four first downs in eliminating the Tigers from postseason contention.
A victory over East Aurora would qualify Waubonsie Valley for the looming Class 8A postseason as it looks for a ninth straight postseason appearance.
The Tomcats have lost five straight games since a season-opening victory over Noble/DRW Trading.
East Aurora has been held to eight points in each of the last two weeks in consecutive 41-8 losses to West Aurora and Bartlett and has been held to eight points three times.
Since putting up 46 points in the Week 1 victory over Noble/DRW Trading, the Tomcats have scored no more than 13 points in a single game since.
Waubonsie Valley ends its season with three straight road games against East Aurora, Naperville North and Wheaton North.
Waubonsie Valley coach Paul Murphy on East Aurora: “I think they’re getting better. I think they pretty much run a defense based on what they think they got to stop. What they did against West Aurora versus what they did against Bartlett versus what they did against West Chicago: all three games they were slightly in different alignment on defense. I’m sure they’re trying to get the best matchups they can to try to defend the offense that they’re seeing.
“We got to continue to get better. We got to have a great week of practice. We got to focus on the things we need to correct. You never play a perfect game, so there’s always things that you can work on. That’s what we got to work on and the last two weeks, teams have given us a little bit.
“So we’re going to spend some time teaching our kids how we need to block that little wrinkle teams have showed us. Teams are copycats. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit for East Aurora to see what Metea and Wheaton South did and try to go to that, so we have to be prepared for that.”
