Naperville Central looking to improve red zone efficiency
Rolling right around with five straight victories entering its game with Wheaton North on Friday, No. 8 Naperville Central has been dictating terms with its suffocating defense.
But somewhat lost in its 27-6 victory over Naperville North, which saw it force six turnovers and intercept four passes, was the fact Naperville Central (5-1, 2-0) turned the ball over on downs three times.
That fact wasn’t lost on Redhawks’ coach Mike Stine.
“We came in here seeing if we could run the ball and for the most part, we ran the ball extremely well, except once we got inside the red zone,” he said last Friday. “We struggled a little bit and that’s going to be an area we got to get better at. I mean, we got stopped three or four times inside the red zone and we got a couple field goals out of those. But you want to come away with touchdowns when you can. So we got to get better in that area and I know our guys will continue to work at it.”
For the man who sparked the Redhawks’ offensive attack against the Huskies, senior running back Kevin Clifford, he feels he and his offensive mates can definitely get better from Friday.
“Limit the turnovers. Did we have a turnover (Friday) night? I don’t think we did offensively. … We had one. (Junior QB) Conor (Joyce), yeah, yeah (the) interception. So, I mean, we limit those turnovers and we’ll be a great team in the future. I really believe that,” he said. “So (if) we just finish inside the 20, limit the turnovers and you can see what we can do. We can put up 27 points easy.”
Clifford had a game-high 256 rushing yards and one touchdown for the Redhawks, who recorded their second straight victory over their crosstown rivals.
Waubonsie Valley’s defense hoping to shore up holes
Off to its second 6-0 start in the three last seasons, No. 7 Waubonsie Valley will look to get to 7-0 with a win Friday at home against West Aurora, a week before its annual date at North Central College with Neuqua Valley.
While a postseason berth is assured with three weeks to go in the regular season, the Warriors (6-0, 4-0) are hoping to shore up and fine-tune some things.
Chief among them is working to get a defense that had allowed over 10 points just once in their first four games back on track.
Surviving to come away with one-point victories in each of the last two weeks against Glenbard East and Metea Valley is nice, but Warriors’ coach Paul Murphy knows his defense will need to get better if it hopes to make a postseason run.
“Just tackle better. We don’t have anybody hurt. Our kids just have got to tackle better and they have to understand that everybody, now that you’re undefeated at this point of the season, everybody can make their season by beating you,” he said. “So I think we have to understand that everybody’s going to give us their ‘A’ game and we got to get ready to compete for 48 minutes.”
While Zack Bennema and crew have been scoring points in bunches offensively, Murphy believes that unit can play better as well in an attempt to help out the defense.
“It’s about getting us playing Warrior style of football that we were playing earlier in the year because somehow we’re not playing as well as we did early in the season,” he said. “We got to get back to that if we want to have any kind of postseason run.”
Naperville North in playoff mode entering home date with Wheaton Warrenville South
Losers of four straight games, Naperville North (2-4, 0-2) welcomes Wheaton Warrenville South on Friday with its streak of consecutive postseason appearances of 17 straight years in extreme peril.
Already dealing with four 5-5 finishes in the last five years, three straight victories to ensure a fifth 5-4 regular-season finish in the last six years will be needed to extend the DuPage Valley Conference’s longest active streak to 18.
Road games at Wheaton North, also at 2-4 overall entering play Friday, and at Glenbard North to finish the year is a tough task, but a victory over the 2-4 Tigers, which would keep the Tigers home from the postseason for the second time in three years, is step No. 1 on the Huskies’ agenda.
“We know we’re capable of winning three games in a row to end the season. It’s just whether we do it or not,” Naperville North coach Sean Drendel said. “We have beaten a very good Neuqua team. We were right there with Glenbard North (in a 20-19 loss on Sept. 19) and so that’s kind of the way it is this year. You’re talking about (how) our conference is pretty physical. Offensively, most of the teams have struggled a little bit. So it’s just been one of those years and you got to find ways to get through it.”
Wheaton Warrenville South and Naperville North, which have combined for nine state titles and 14 state title game appearances, haven’t both missed the postseason in the same year since 1985.
