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Friday, October 4, 2024

Conner Lovely Hopes to Build off Kyle Mooney’s Success by Getting Metea Valley Back to Postseason in 2015

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Metea Valley quarterback Conner Lovely hands the ball off to Mitch Webb. Lovely will be aiming to get Metea Valley back to the postseason in 2015 as he steps in for Kyle Mooney.
Metea Valley quarterback Conner Lovely hands the ball off to Mitch Webb. Lovely will be aiming to get Metea Valley back to the postseason in 2015 as he steps in for Kyle Mooney.

The program’s first-ever postseason appearance certainly has Metea Valley wanting more.

At least that’s the way new Mustangs’ quarterback Conner Lovely sees it.

“Things are going great,” Lovely said. “Camp’s going well. We’re definitely pushing to make that second playoff run. It’s something we’re looking to push for, working hard to achieve.”

As Metea Valley transitions from the Upstate Eight Valley to the DuPage Valley Conference, it will make the transition from Kyle Mooney to Lovely under center.

Mooney threw for 1,420 yards and 19 touchdowns in guiding the Mustangs to a 5-4 regular-season finish last year and a Class 8A first-round date with Waubonsie Valley.

Lovely knows that with Mooney, workhorse running back Bryson Oliver and wide receiver Nick Dodson gone to graduation, things will be different.

“Obviously, we don’t have the experience we did last year with three top starters in Brett Boddy, Matt Fitzgerald on O-line and Nick Dodson at wide receiver,” Lovely said. “And even the experience of having a great kicker like Michael Sfikas, but what we do have is a bunch of guys that learned from some of the best players in the area last year and they’re working their hardest to achieve what they did last year.”

At his disposal will be running back Maurice Burkley and a deep group of wide receivers, led by Reggie Hill, Ben Loutsis, Jordan Cagigal, Jack Feeley, Brad Fekety and Alec Dodson.

Burkley, who gained 222 yards and two touchdowns on 32 carries behind Oliver’s program-record 1,701 yards and 18 TDs, will be asked to be the lead back.

Alonzo Taylor-Jones and Mitch Webb will join Burkley in that effort as the Mustangs go to a running back-by-committee approach after Oliver toted the rock 272 times in 2014.

Last Thursday, Metea Valley went 5-0 in pool play at Wheaton Warrenville South’s Red Grange 7-on-7.

That definitely stood out as a building block for the young Mustangs.

“Going 5-0 in our first pool play competition-type setting at Red Grange was awesome,” Lovely said. “We had a great time competing against some of the top teams in the area. We have a group of guys competing to get those four starting wide receiver spots in Ben Loutsis, Jordan Cagigal, Brad Fekety, Jack Feeley, Alec Dodson and Reggie Hill. All of them are great guys.”

Whoever emerges from the wide receiver group will need to help replace the production of the Grand Valley State-bound Nick Dodson, who caught 44 passes for 806 yards and 10 TDs last year.

Cagigal’s three receptions for 23 yards represents him as the Mustangs’ top returning receiver as Mooney’s top four targets from a year ago have all graduated.

Oliver and Nick Dodson left the program as the all-time leading rusher and second in receiving yards with 1,992 rushing yards and 1,494 receiving yards, respectively.

The shift into the DuPage Valley Conference undoubtedly brings challenges for a program entering its sixth year of varsity competition.

A schedule that opens up with home games with Neuqua Valley and Naperville North and a road date at Naperville Central on Sept. 11 illustrates that point.

But it’s a task Metea Valley will take on head on.

“Obviously, the DVC, as everyone has been saying, is one of the most (prominent), if not the best conference in Illinois,” Lovely said. “And whether or not you agree with that, you have to agree with the fact that these are some of the best teams in the state. Naperville North, Naperville Central; teams you’ve never played before. Obviously, it’s going to be a great matchup between two solid area teams.

“It’s always going to be almost a rivalry week every single week. So it’s going to be solid for both the team morale, in terms of getting up for the next game. Always if you come off a win or a loss, you’re always pumped for the next game.”

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Blake Baumgartner
Blake Baumgartner
Raised in Naperville, Blake Baumgartner is a 2001 Naperville Central alumnus and a 2005 graduate of Michigan State's School of Journalism. Since March 2010, he has covered football, boys' basketball and baseball for both The Naperville Sun and Positively Naperville. Follow him on Twitter @BFBaumgartner.
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