Metea Valley (2-2, 1-1 Upstate Eight Valley) @ South Elgin (2-2, 1-1 Upstate Eight Valley), 1:30PM Saturday, Sept. 27.
Last week: Metea Valley beat West Aurora, 42-13; South Elgin lost to Neuqua Valley, 50-28
Storyline: Metea Valley hits the road for the second time this season when it visits South Elgin tomorrow in hopes of building on momentum gleaned from its first conference win of the season.
The Mustangs took out some of their frustration on West Aurora in the course of putting up a 42-point night as they opened up the contest with 42 straight points.
Bryson Oliver had a 59-yard punt return for a TD to go along with a short touchdown run against the Blackhawks to highlight his 109-yard performance on the ground as he has six rushing touchdowns thus far with 643 rushing yards.
Mustangs’ senior quarterback Kyle Mooney was efficient in completing nine of his 12 passes for 93 yards and a pair of touchdowns against the Blackhawks as he and his teammates rebounded nicely from their 14-3 loss to Bartlett the week before.
The three points tallied against the Hawks on Sept. 12 aside, the Mustangs have broken the 30-point mark in their three other games.
South Elgin comes into Saturday sitting at 2-2 after giving up 60 points in its 50-28 loss to Neuqua Valley.
The Storm fell victim to three Charlie Hunter touchdown runs as the Wildcats broke open a close game by tallying 37 points combined over the course of the second and third quarters.
Doing his best to keep up with the Indiana State-bound Broc Rutter, Hayden Nelson threw three touchdown passes for South Elgin, which is averaging 42 points a game on offense in coach Pat Pistorio’s high-octane attack.
Metea Valley coach Ben Kleinhans on South Elgin: “I think playing us at their place on a Saturday afternoon is a homefield advantage for them, obviously. It’s something different for opposing teams and it’s something that we got to go in saying we got to overcome and adjust to. We got to have the mentality that we don’t care when or where we play; we’re just going to go play football. It changes your whole work week a little bit, adds an extra day and just getting kids to focus in for that one extra day before the game and playing in a different environment and kind of approach it and say, ‘This is what it’s like on a playoff Saturday or when you’re going to play in college on a Saturday. This is when you play.’ Just get their minds right.
“Specifically, as a football team, they’re very talented. On offense, they have five legit skill players that they spread the ball around to. They do a really good job with their schemes, with their no-huddle and kind of changing plays. … They got two backs that carry the ball that are on the field the whole time that they motion around. They’ve got three receivers that they get the ball to and that quarterback (Nelson) is a dual-threat, throwing and (as a) runner. So they present a lot of challenges for your defense and they make you defend the whole field. … We just got to be very sound in our alignment, limit or take away the big plays. I know they’re going to get some yards and they’re probably going to get some points. We just got to minimize that and not let them explode for a big number and kind of try to keep them out of rhythm.”
