Finally in the groove it had been waiting to find all season long, Neuqua Valley seems to be hitting in all the right places at the right time.
Buoyed by a 27-point first quarter, Neuqua Valley did what it wanted to do on its way to cruising to a 69-27 victory over East Aurora on Friday night in Naperville.
The Wildcats’ Indiana State-bound quarterback Broc Rutter’s three of four touchdown passes came within the game’s opening 12 minutes as they put up a season-high 69 points in finding the end zone 10 times from 10 different players.
Neuqua Valley (3-2, 3-0 Upstate Eight Valley) had four different players caught TD passes from Rutter, four different guys found paydirt through the ground and two others took kickoffs to the house.
“I think it was great. We just knew it was a team that we just had to go out and execute (against) and do our stuff and worry about ourselves,” he said. “And I think we did that. We got a ton of different guys the ball. We just did everything we wanted to do.”
Through five games, Rutter has completed 53.2 percent of his passes for 845 yards and eight touchdowns, half of which came against the Tomcats on Friday night.
In winning their third straight game since dropping games to both Naperville North and Naperville Central to start the season, the Wildcats’ 69 points Friday night were the most in a single game in program history, eclipsing the 65 points they scored in a 65-28 victory over Metea Valley last season.
While the four Rutter touchdown passes and the rushing TDs from the likes of Dominick Muoghalu, Charlie Hunter, Jacob Krajacic and DeVaughn Welch were nice, perhaps the biggest development for the Wildcats were the two touchdowns on special teams.
“Yeah, we’re doing it in all three phases right now, which is really nice to see,” Neuqua Valley coach Bill Ellinghaus said. “The first couple games, we looked at our offense and we were like, ‘You know, we need to just keep chipping away at it.’ And sometimes it takes a little while to get into a rhythm and I feel like we’re in a little bit of a rhythm right now and look to continue.”
Neuqua Valley gets West Aurora and Bartlett the next two weeks before meeting with longtime rival Waubonsie Valley over at North Central College on Oct. 17.
