#6 Naperville (Neuqua Valley) (6-3) at #3 Flossmoor (Homewood-F.) (7-2) (map), Fri., Oct. 31, 7PM
As the two programs prepare to meet for the first time ever, Neuqua Valley and Homewood-Flossmoor fully know one another’s pain.
Each losing to eventual Class 8A state champion Naperville Central in the postseason a year ago, the two highly-regarded programs begin their respective journeys towards postseason redemption opposite each other on Friday night.
On the heels of claiming at least a share of its third straight Upstate Eight Valley title, No. 6 Neuqua Valley heads to Flossmoor with designs of picking up where it left off a week ago in its 28-14 victory at Metea Valley.
Charlie Hunter’s 143 rushing yards and two touchdowns led the way as the Wildcats (6-3) responded from the 35-28 loss to Waubonsie Valley the week before that snapped their five-game winning streak.
With the third-seeded Vikings offering a different perspective as a new opponent, the Wildcats’ recipe for success won’t change.
“Well, I think we’re going to do okay. That’s something that we’re working real hard on this week is to make sure (we stay disciplined),” Neuqua Valley coach Bill Ellinghaus said. “They like to blitz a lot and man up their receivers. So they blitz quite a bit. They’ll put more guys in than we can block and we’re working real hard on blitz pickups this week and working real hard on trying to establish the run game, which we’ll shoot to do on Friday night.”
Picking up victories over both Waubonsie Valley and Naperville North en route to reaching the Class 8A state semifinals in 2010 while losing postseason games to Naperville Central in two of the last three years, Homewood-Flossmoor knows the quality of football played in the western suburbs.
“I really wouldn’t say clone, but I mean, they just play the same type of way (as Naperville Central did in 2013),” Homewood-Flossmoor coach Craig Buzea said. “In general, they’re just very solid. They run the ball. They can throw the ball, just like Naperville did. I think their defense is really, really solid. I really like their linebackers. I think they really play downhill, play hard.”
“They’ve got some athletes. They do a nice job of getting the ball to their athletes. They look very impressive. There’s no reason for me not to be (impressed) beforehand, but when I turn on the film, I really thought these guys really remind me of Central last year.”
The Vikings (7-2) led the Southwest Suburban Blue in scoring by averaging 46.7 points a game while topping the 40-point mark in seven of their nine games.
In last week’s 48-0 shutout of Stagg, Vikings’ quarterback Bryce Gray threw two touchdown passes while twin brothers Deante and Devonte Harley-Hampton had two touchdown runs apiece as the Vikings raced out to a 41-0 lead.
Gray, a first-year starter at quarterback, has thrown for 1,728 yards and 18 touchdowns while being intercepted four times, while Deante and Devonte Harley-Hampton have combined for 1,546 yards and 27 touchdowns on the ground.
“Yeah, they put up the points, don’t they?” Ellinghaus said. “They certainly put up a lot of points. They’ve been really good at putting up points up. Defensively, they’ve managed to stop an awful lot of people. So they gave up a few points to Lincoln-Way East (in a 43-40 loss on Sept. 26), but overall, top-to-bottom, they’re very athletic. They’re fast. They’re athletic.”
While Gray will be making his postseason debut for the Vikings, his counterpart, Indiana State-bound quarterback Broc Rutter will be making his fourth career postseason start.
Rutter has completed 56.5 percent of his passes for 1,733 yards and 20 touchdowns while being intercepted just five times for an offense that has averaged 35.1 points a game for Neuqua Valley (6-3).
The passing ability of Rutter coupled with the Wildcats’ desire to pound the ball straight at you with Hunter and Dominick Muoghalu brings a different aspect in terms of what Homewood-Flossmoor will have to cope with defensively, according to Buzea.
“One thing what they bring which a lot of teams haven’t brought in regards to offense is they bring a balance and I think they’re like only 52 percent run, 48 percent pass,” Buzea said. “I think any time you can add that type of balance to the guy that can fling the ball around like Rutter does, it really keeps you on your toes. They’re very diverse in what they do. They can go to five-wides one play and on the next play; they’re in three backs and a tight end.”
“So I think that’s what really makes them diverse. It’s not that we haven’t seen that kind of stuff before because we have. But I just don’t know if we’ve seen it with the talent that they bring on the field. That’s really going to be one of the tell tale signs of how well we can handle and match up with their diversity that they have on offense.”
Admitting his players’ initial disappointment at not getting a second shot at either Naperville Central or Waubonsie Valley, two of the three teams that have beaten Neuqua Valley this year, Ellinghaus thinks the 43-mile trip to Flossmoor will help.
Three victories away from towards getting a potential second shot at either Naperville Central or Waubonsie Valley in a Class 8A state semifinal, but a victory over the Vikings will be required to even start dreaming about that.
“(Getting to play) somebody new, I think is going to be good thing for us. The kids have bought into that right now,” Ellinghaus said.
