You can’t put too much emphasis into one play.
But did Payton Thorne’s interception on his first pass of the game Friday against Wheaton Warrenville South offer a little foreshadowing?
With the way Naperville Central gobbled up yards on the ground, you could answer in the affirmative.
Thorne and running back AJ Deinhart each went for over 100 yards as the Redhawks remained unblemished by picking up a 31-17 victory over the Tigers.
“That early, obviously, I’m still thinking ‘just get past it,’” Thorne said. “It’s so early in the game, you can’t dwell on that. You got to put that behind you. I wouldn’t say I thought we wouldn’t be able to throw the ball. But it was nice to have our run game just pound and pound it like that.”
Behind runs of 62 and 25 yards, Thorne tallied 110 rushing yards while only throwing for 73 yards.
Eligible for a postseason berth through five weeks, Naperville Central (5-0, 5-0) struggled for the majority of the night throwing.
Deinhart, however, had no issues taking what the defense was giving him in running for 119 yards and two touchdowns.
Both scores came in the second half as the Redhawks were in the process of turning a 10-7 deficit into a 31-10 advantage after Deinhart’s second TD.
“Little bit healthier,” Deinhart said. “I’m hoping to be 100 percent for St. Eds because that’s a big game, but I’m still nursing this high ankle sprain. But it’s feeling better than it has been.
“Patience and letting everything develop and trusting the guys up front because they did a great job.”
As the two programs met for the 107th and likely final time in the regular season, the Redhawks were determined to get their running game on track.
Jayden Reed, Danny Hughes and Deinhart all found the end zone at least once on the ground.
And with opponents continually needing to be cognizant of Thorne’s arm, that was music to the ears of coach Mike Stine.
“Teams are going to take something away and we feel like we got some weapons offensively,” Stine said. “If you’re going to take away the perimeter, we got to be able to run it. If you’re going to pack the paint, we got to be able to throw it.”
For the fifth time in as many weeks, defensive coordinator Mike Ulreich’s unit came down with at least one interception.
After junior Jack Jopes intercepted a pass late in the first half, senior Tommy Carlsen followed suit with one of his own in the third.
The two interceptions helped Naperville Central keep the Tigers out of the end zone for much of the game after Ryan Young’s two-yard score to open the game.
“We preach that every day in practice pretty much,” Carlsen said of the turnovers. “We want to be a takeaway team this year. There’s a lack of takeaways last year, so if we go a practice without a lot of tipped balls or a lot of interceptions, we’re pretty upset with ourselves. We want to go back at it and get after it the next day.”