With his first meeting against Waubonsie Valley as a first-year head coach at Neuqua Valley looming in Oct. 2012, Bill Ellinghaus gave a philosophical answer when discussing the program’s success against Waubonsie Valley since the two programs first met in 1999.
“I think one of the reasons why is because we really approach this game like any other opponent. We approach it just like any other opponent,” Ellinghaus said two years ago.
“We know all the hype. We know that there’s a lot of things, circumstances around it because we’re sister schools or because we’re in the same (school) district that, you know, it naturally gets hyped more.
“But I think because we approach this very much like another week and go after it that way, I think is why probably we’ve been able to play extremely well (against Waubonsie Valley). We try very hard not to get caught up in all the extra stuff surrounding the game.”
On the Wildcats’ coaching staff since 1999 and the offensive coordinator under Bryan Wells from 2004 to 2011, Ellinghaus certainly knows of what he speaks when it comes to the history the Wildcats and Warriors share on the gridiron.
Winners of five straight games, turning a 0-2 start into a 5-2 record and playoff eligibility entering Friday night’s annual meeting with Waubonsie Valley at North Central College’s Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium, 23rd-ranked Neuqua Valley will put Ellinghaus’ perfect 3-0 record against the Warriors on the line in hopes of officially clinching a spot in the Class 8A postseason with a victory.
Averaging 55 points over the course of the last four weeks behind an offensive attack Indiana State-bound quarterback Broc Rutter continues to operate with extreme precision, the Wildcats (5-2, 5-0) hope to improve its record against Waubonsie Valley to 13-4 all-time while also laying claim to a third straight outright Upstate Eight Valley title.
“I think we’re going to take it at a couple different ways. I think we’re going to try to stick to what we’ve been doing lately because obviously the last couple games, it’s been working for us,” Rutter said. “And I think this week is all about executing what Neuqua Valley wants to do, not trying to focus on what Waubonsie Valley wants to do. Just try to do Neuqua Valley all week.”
Against Bartlett last week, Rutter completed 12 of his 14 passes for 263 yards and five touchdowns, including two to Isaiah Robertson, as the Wildcats ran away from the Hawks en route to posting a 54-29 victory.
In last year’s 15-point victory over the Warriors, Rutter was very sharp in completing 10 of his 12 passes for 137 yards and three scores as Neuqua Valley won despite being outgained offensively.
“I just learned it’s really a great atmosphere,” Rutter said of the rivalry. “It’s crazy, intense and there’s going to be a lot of people there and it’s about the team and whoever I think can just settle down first and just execute their stuff and block out all the distractions (will have the best opportunity to win).”
Waubonsie Valley, meanwhile, is coming off its first loss of the season after six straight victories after West Aurora came into Dick Kerner Stadium and came away with a 27-24 victory in double-overtime last Friday.
Held under 300 total yards offensively for just the second time all season, the Warriors’ tendency to play with fire, stemming from one-point victories against Glenbard East and Metea Valley in the two weeks prior, finally caught up with them against the Blackhawks.
Last week, Zack Bennema and Tony Durns combined to run for 192 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries for Waubonsie Valley (6-1, 4-1) as its 24 points marked a season low.
As the Warriors look to stay alive in the division race, the leader of their offense, Bennema, knows what needs to be taken away from that loss to the Blackhawks.
“We’re going to have to learn that every possession counts on offense and every possession will count against Neuqua just as much as it did against West Aurora,” Bennema said. “We had, I think, 36 plays or something like that, some crazy number like that. So we’re definitely going to have to take advantage of every possession this week and just make sure we’re putting up points on the board as much as we can to help our defense and we’re just going to have to overall just play better than we did last week.
“I know (the West Aurora loss) is coming at kind of a bad time, right before the big game, but I think it’ll be good for us. It kind of humbled us a little bit. So I think it’ll be a good thing for us to get that loss and come back strong this week.”
Its problems on defense continued by allowing West Aurora to gain 390 total yards offensively, including running for 273 on the ground as Drake Spears and DaQuan Cross combined to churn out 236 rushing yards.
“Well we got to tackle better, but we also got to … our players have to carry out their assignments,” Waubonsie Valley coach Paul Murphy said. “I mean, defense is all about filling your gaps and against West Aurora, we didn’t fill our gaps and that’s why they were able to control the ball so much because they just kept running the same play over and over and over again. No linebacker wanted to step up and fill that hole.”
Murphy noted that both teams will have bigger fish to fry, no matter who wins on Friday–an observation that has merit given the long postseason runs both programs aspire to have.
But for one team, Friday is about keeping the momentum going while the other team wants to put a stop to the bleeding, despite its record.
“I feel like this week of practice, everyone is kind of coming out with a little bit more fire and just a reason to be out there,” Bennema said. “We want to make sure we show the conference and everyone that the game against West Aurora, you know, wasn’t us.
“That wasn’t our team and (we need to) just do what we can in practice to just improve as much as we can and come out and show it on Friday night against Neuqua. So we definitely got a renewed sense of energy and I don’t see us caving in or panicking or anything like that. I think it was a humbling experience that we’ll learn from it and hopefully it’ll help us this week against Neuqua.”
