Still digesting what his team had just done hours earlier, the message Metea Valley coach Ben Kleinhans had for his team was simple.
Don’t let the program’s first-ever victory over Waubonsie Valley be as good as it gets for the 2015 Mustangs.
“This has got to be a springboard and this can’t be the highlight of our year,” said Kleinhans, a 1999 Waubonsie Valley graduate. “This has to be the night that we look back on that gave us the momentum to do bigger and better things the last four weeks of the season here and make the end of the year exciting.
“That’s the coaches’ job and the kids’ job is not to get complacent, stay focused and remember what got us this win. That’s what’s got to carry us the rest of the year.”
Senior quarterback Conner Lovely’s nine-yard TD run in the fourth quarter ended the game’s scoring in Metea Valley’s 19-7 victory over Waubonsie Valley.
Lovely did a nice job of staying focused himself after throwing an interception inside the Warriors’ five-yard line late in the first half and with the Mustangs looking to pad a 13-7 lead.
The Mustangs didn’t turn the ball over again as Maurice Burkley gave Lovely a helping hand by running for 79 yards on 18 carries.
Defensively, Metea Valley stiffened after Max Ihry’s second-quarter touchdown run for Waubonsie Valley.
“That interception at the end of the first half was pretty disappointing in my eyes,” Lovely said. “It was a bad throw on my part. I think I thought a little too much and didn’t really just let it go. I kind of tried to guide it. But the defense really stepped up in the second half. They shut them down, really. Some wide receivers made some great after-the-catch plays. Ben Loutsis made a couple awesome after-the-catch plays off of bubble screens that really went for big gains.”
Lovely hit four different receivers, with Loutsis’ six catches for 94 yards leading the way.
At 2-3 overall and inside the DVC, the Mustangs welcome an old Upstate Eight foe, Lake Park, to town on Friday before going on the road at both Wheaton Warrenville South and Glenbard North.
“Obviously, this was a huge momentum shift for us,” Lovely said. “We really needed that second win to get back to 2-3. We know Lake Park’s a big, physical team and we’ve played some of the biggest, most physical teams in the DVC so far. So I feel like we’ll prepare really well and they’re just another team on our schedule. We have to go 1-0 each week.”
Redhawks make statement: Its Week 4 loss at Waubonsie Valley serving as the perfect reminder, Naperville Central completely rewrote the fourth quarter script against Wheaton Warrenville South.
Six days after giving up 15 fourth-quarter points to the Warriors and surrendering a 14-point lead, the Redhawks put forth 13 points against the Tigers – earning a 20-8 victory in the process.
“It was a bounceback,” Naperville Central coach Mike Stine said. “It was a statement week. We challenged the kids. We felt like we made too many mistakes last week.”
A pair of Conor Joyce fourth-quarter touchdown runs permitted Naperville Central to erase a one-point deficit while allowing the offense to impose its will.
Joyce’s first TD run came on a two-yard score, ending a 17-play, 88-yard drive that spanned two quarters, to put the Redhawks in front for good at 13-8 with 10:28 left to play.
After the defense made a stop, Joyce found himself in the end zone again, courtesy of a nine-yard TD run to finish out the game’s scoring on a five-play drive.
The Redhawks sit at 4-1 overall and in the DVC as they prepare to travel to undefeated and 5-0 Batavia on Friday for their only nonconference game of the year.
“We just got to keep taking each game 1-0,” Joyce said. “In this conference, you never know what’s going to happen. There’s going to be upsets every week, so we just got to keep handling what we need to handle each week.”
