#4 Naperville (Central) (8-2) at #1 Aurora (Waubonsie Valley) (9-1) (map), Sat., Nov. 8, 1:00 pm
Amidst putting forth a 20-point fourth quarter to eliminate Brother Rice last weekend in the opening round of the Class 8A postseason, it didn’t take very long for fourth-seeded Naperville Central to turn the page.
“I mean, that’s what we’ve waited for all year. We want revenge on them so bad,” Redhawks’ senior linebacker Bobby McMillen said. “We realized the first game of the season wasn’t the way we played. It’s not the way the Redhawks are taught to play. So going into next week and possibly playing Waubonsie (that) is definitely the matchup that we want.”
The Iowa State-bound McMillen helped ensure a second meeting this season with top-seeded Waubonsie Valley after forcing a fumble that immediately set up Naperville Central’s first score against Brother Rice while finishing off matters with a 20-yard fumble recovery for a TD late in the fourth quarter in a 34-21 Naperville Central victory.
While turning things up a notch in the second half by keeping the Crusaders off the board in the second half while erasing a 14-point halftime deficit, the Redhawks (8-2) showed the pedigree befitting a defending state champion.
Now with a return trip to Dick Kerner Stadium on Saturday for the first postseason meeting between the two future conference rivals since 1993 on the docket, memories of turning the ball over six times in a 20-6 season-opening loss to Waubonsie Valley are still fresh in the Redhawks’ minds.
“This has been one we’ve been thinking about ever since Week 1 after that tough loss,” Naperville Central junior quarterback Conor Joyce said.
Joyce, who had 182 total yards and four touchdowns last week against Brother Rice, accounted for the Redhawks’ only score, courtesy of a 28-yard touchdown run, in his first varsity start but was intercepted twice while the Warriors recovered four Redhawk fumbles.
Scouting a day before his team eliminated No. 8 Metea Valley with a 21-14 home victory, Waubonsie Valley coach Paul Murphy is quick to point out the progress the Redhawk signal caller has made.
“I thought Joyce was really big. I think I read the quote (that) his teammates thought it was his best game he’s played,” Murphy said. “Now, I only saw the first one. He was definitely better in Week 10 than he was Week 9. He was handling the ball with confidence and he made good decisions. We always knew (Kevin) Clifford was a hard-nosed type of running back. It’s not something we didn’t know coming into the season after last year and watching their run in the playoffs.”
Stopping Clifford, who had 116 yards on 21 carries in the first meeting back in August, might be job No. 1 for the Warriors’ defense.
But just as much as keeping Clifford, the DuPage Valley Conference Offensive Player of the Year, under wraps as much as possible is vital, Waubonsie Valley (9-1) will hope to utilize its triple option attack, led by quarterback Zack Bennema and running back Tony Durns, as a vehicle towards that end.
With Durns, who ran for 177 yards and a TD against Naperville Central in Week 1, limited by a sprained ankle suffered in the regular-season finale against South Elgin, Bennema’s two touchdown runs and Max Ihry’s 121 yards and TD in Durns’ stead paced the Warriors in their victory over Metea Valley, in which they were starting in bad field position for much of the afternoon.
Bennema, the Co-Upstate Eight Valley Offensive Player of the Year, hit the passes he needed to in the second half to help spur Waubonsie Valley on to its third straight victory.
“What we want to do is control the ball and chew up the clock and put points up on the board and keep it away from their offense,” Murphy said. “That’s always the best defense is if you have a great offense going. Yeah, I believe you got to try to make them one-dimensional. You can’t let Clifford beat you. We can’t let (Michael) Kolzow beat us or (Emmanuel) Rugamba. We just got to play solid, fundamental defense like we did last Saturday against Metea because they’ve got weapons.”
Back in Week 1 against the Redhawks in his first varsity start, Bennema ran for 109 yards and a touchdown, a sign of things to come as he has efficiently piloted a Waubonsie Valley offense that has averaged 35 points a game.
While he’s shown quite often what he can do with his legs, evidenced by his 748 yards and 16 TDs on the ground, the progress he made with his arm in the Warriors’ last two regular-season games, which saw him throw six touchdown passes, has made him a true dual-threat.
“Just (impressed with) how well he runs the offense. He’s really patient with it and does a great job of giving the ball where it needs to be and runs the offense well,” Naperville Central defensive coordinator Mike Ulreich said of Bennema. “So that’s what we got to deal with.”
Thanks to the first postseason meeting between the two programs in 21 years, a Naperville-area school will reach the state quarterfinals for the fifth straight season.
Whether it’ll be Naperville Central taking the next step towards a possible repeat in Class 8A or it’s Waubonsie Valley advancing to a state quarterfinal for the second time in three years could hinge on how the programs’ dueling Offensive Players of the Year, Clifford and Bennema, fare.
But considering these programs are no strangers to one another, having opened up the year against one another every year since 2007, no one will be surprised at what awaits them across from the line of scrimmage.
“They’re still, from what I can see, pretty much the same team. I mean, they’re running the same scheme. They’ve got the same players,” Naperville Central coach Mike Stine said. “Really, the same thing we are. I mean; the good programs don’t change a lot. Good programs believe in their system and they trust the system and they run their system.”
