Jayden Reed had Payton Thorne’s back.
With the emotions the Naperville Central quarterback-wide receiver duo were feeling heading into Friday’s game with Metea Valley, he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“(Payton) and I have a lot of chemistry so far,” Reed said. “We’ve been playing since about seventh grade. He’s a phenomenal kid. His father (North Central College coach Jeff) teaches him a lot of things – like how to read defenses. He’s really good at that.”
On the whole, the entire Redhawk offense was really good against the Mustangs en route to registering a 55-7 DuPage Valley Conference victory.
Naperville Central (3-0, 3-0) scored touchdowns on its first seven possessions of the game.
Of those seven touchdown drives, Thorne had a hand in five of them.
Thorne and Reed, who played together at Metea Valley in 2016, connected five times for 91 yards and a second-quarter touchdown.
Rotated between two touchdown runs, Thorne threw touchdown passes to Tommy Coyne and Ethan Allgauer.
Thorne went 12-of-17 passing for 174 yards.
“We were trying to treat it just like another game – me and (Reed) were,” Thorne said. “And kind of take a mindset of just taking care of business.”
For the third straight game, defensive coordinator Mike Ulreich’s unit came down with an interception.
Senior linebacker Mike Oliver’s interception of Metea Valley quarterback Garrett Despot on the game’s second series set the tone for the night.
The Mustangs (0-3, 0-3) managed just 173 total yards and didn’t score until four minutes had elapsed off the second-quarter clock.
Senior receiver Michael Brown connected with Keven Dasilva for a 59-yard score to get Metea Valley within 28-7.
Other than that, it was tough sledding against a defense that continues to work in the shadow of what Thorne, Reed and Coyne are doing.
“We didn’t start well from the opening kickoff,” he said. “We looked like we weren’t prepared for that type of atmosphere and game. That’s on me – to get our guys better prepared for what they’re going to experience.”
In Naperville Central’s backfield, Danny Hughes was ready and knew what to expect.
The 6-foot, 170-pound junior filled in for All-DVC running back AJ Deinhart quite admirably.
Hughes ran 11 times for 105 yards and scored twice as the Redhawks took a 42-7 lead into halftime.
“Huge,” he said of the Redhawks’ offensive line’s performance. “The holes when I was running – it was wide open. When I was running with the ball, the holes were just wide open. It was huge. (The offensive line) was great. Just great.”
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