The game has been rescheduled for Saturday at 6:30PM
Dick Kerner Stadium will always own a special place in Conor Joyce’s heart.
After all, it’s where – on a hot and rainy August night last year – he made his first career start at quarterback for Naperville Central.
It’s also where he claimed his biggest win of his career to date last November in guiding Naperville Central to a 24-14 upset of top-seeded Waubonsie Valley in the second round of the Class 8A playoffs.
As Joyce leads the fourth-ranked Redhawks into Dick Kerner Stadium for the third time since Aug. 29, 2014 on Friday, he and his teammates will look to repeat what they did Nov. 8, 2014 – win.
“They have a very good team this year and Waubonsie’s always a tough place to play,” Joyce said. “One of the few teams that still has grass and they have a pretty tough environment to go in and play. They got a few good guys on defense and some really good playmakers that are going to cause some trouble for us. But we should be all right if we stick together. It’s a tough place to play, but we should be all right if we stick to the game plan.”
Naperville Central (3-0, 3-0), the lone undefeated team in the DuPage Valley Conference entering Week 4, stuck to its game plan a week ago in outscoring Metea Valley, 21-0, in the second half on the way to picking up a 27-7 win.
Luke Brady’s 36-yard TD run in the third quarter put the Redhawks in front to stay and Brady combined with senior Jeremiah Wiggins to run for 193 yards and a pair of scores.
Waubonsie Valley coach Paul Murphy knows his defensive charges can’t let Brady loose.
“He gets in that open space, he’s dangerous,” Murphy said of Brady. “You got to keep him bottled up and you got to tackle him. Teams that have slowed him down seemed to have been able to surround the ball with tacklers and get him down by committee.
“I know he had the one big run against Metea watching the film that he hits the seam, he can hurt you. So we’ve got to find a way to get multiple bodies around him and bring him down.”
Through three games, the Warriors (2-1, 2-1) have forced 10 turnovers on defense and have forced at least two turnovers in their first three games.
Four players – Trevon Moore, Connor Yukna, Derrick Lee and Kyle Schroeder – have recorded interceptions for Waubonsie Valley, with Moore and Yukna owning two apiece.
The Warriors forced six Redhawk turnovers in their 20-6 victory to start the 2014 season, but it was the four turnovers Mike Ulreich’s unit forced in the playoff game that allowed the Redhawks to get payback.
“Defensively, they’re an aggressive defense,” Naperville Central coach Mike Stine said of Waubonsie Valley. “Their defensive linemen are going to move around a lot. We got to know exactly where they’re at. Their linebackers are going to be aggressive and attack downhill and their corners are pretty athletic.
“So we’ll try and find some mismatches if we can find them on the field and get our athletes in space. But we want to run the ball. That’s what we are. That’s our identity all year and we’re not going to go away from that.”
Behind Kevin Clifford, the Redhawks averaged 181.5 yards a game on the ground in the two meetings with Waubonsie Valley last year.
Through three games this year, Naperville Central is averaging 141 yards rushing behind Brady and Jeremiah Wiggins and are coming off 219 rushing yards as a team against Metea Valley.
Meanwhile, Warriors’ quarterback Jack Connolly acknowledges a lot of the struggles they’re experiencing offensively lie with him.
After putting up 27 points in a season-opening victory over Lake Park, Waubonsie Valley combined for 21 points against Glenbard North and Neuqua Valley the last two weeks.
The Warriors have averaged just 190 total yards the last two weeks after churning out 334 yards against Lake Park.
“It’s hard for me to get frustrated because a lot of it is on me and I know I got to get a lot better,” Connolly said. “It’s just you got to start it at practice and it’s the practice habits – doing the little things in practice that carry over to doing it in the game. So we just got to get some of the little things cleaned up and I think we’ll be fine.”
Immediately following the Warriors’ 28-7 loss at Neuqua Valley last week, Murphy expressed disappointment with the fact his young team continues to let the failure to do some little things turn into big things.
Aiming to try and clean up some of those mistakes served as a point of emphasis throughout Waubonsie Valley’s preparation for the DVC-leading Redhawks, who have allowed just 8.7 points a game.
“We can’t have those mistakes (running routes not called, running wrong routes) in this league and expect to win,” Murphy said. “And the defense has got to understand. They got to battle until we get things fixed on offense.”
With Rodney Gee still nursing a sprained ankle, finding production to help Max Ihry in the running game would help Connolly’s cause and the Warriors’ offense on the whole.
Ihry, who is leading the defense from his middle linebacker spot, gained 76 yards on 16 carries against Neuqua Valley and has 218 yards and three TDs on the year.
Murphy is hopeful one of his two juniors – Josh LeMoine or Quaid Gill – will eventually step up as they’ve only combined for 20 yards on 12 carries.
“We’ve got two junior backs that got some talent,” Murphy said of LeMoine and Gill. “They just got to grow up and become varsity players. They’ve got to stop playing like sophomores and start running the ball like a varsity player because they’ve got some speed. They’ve got some ability to help us.”
For two programs who met in season openers from 2007 to 2014, this meeting four weeks into the season carries even more weight – as it has DVC implications riding on it now.
A victory puts Naperville Central two games up on Waubonsie Valley and possibly Neuqua Valley, as well, if Wheaton Warrenville South holds serve at home.
A Waubonsie Valley victory could see a massive one-loss tie atop the conference with Naperville Central, Neuqua Valley, Waubonsie Valley, Lake Park and Wheaton North.
“It’s a very important game,” Joyce said. “We knew every single game – going into this season – was going to be a big game because you don’t really have a week off. Every team’s going to be a tough team, especially what’s on the line and a chance to get ahead in the conference against a very good football team. It’s a good opportunity for our team and it’s one we’re going to look to take full advantage of.”
