Want to know what best exemplifies the difference what Waubonsie Valley was and what it is now?
Somewhere around 69 inches and 150 pounds.
A JV quarterback for the Warriors as recently as Sept. 12, the insertion of sophomore Tanner Westwood into their triple option can’t be sufficiently measured.
But with two throws coming out of designed halfback passes, Westwood is as big a reason as any 30th-seeded Waubonsie Valley sees itself a victory shy of its third state quarterfinal appearance since 1994.
“Tanner’s been big,” Warriors’ quarterback Jack Connolly said of Westwood. “He came out that Central game and obviously hit that. The biggest thing is how consistent he’s been. He wasn’t just a one-hit wonder. He’s been really consistent since then, honestly probably getting better and better as the year went on. Then he made another big play to win the game at Edwardsville on Saturday.”
Without Westwood, the Warriors would have almost certainly not pinned the only loss on Naperville Central on Sept. 19 nor survived a five-hour trip south last Saturday at previously undefeated Edwardsville.
Westwood’s eight-yard pass to Mike France in overtime sent Waubonsie Valley (6-4) home to eventually ponder a second crack at its biggest rival – 19th-seeded Neuqua Valley (7-3) – when it matters most.
Saturday’s Class 8A second-round tilt between the two older District 204 programs comes three years after the first time they met in the postseason – a 2012 Class 8A state quarterfinal won by Neuqua Valley.
The Wildcats fully realize the Warriors they’ll see Saturday aren’t the same ones they saw 57 days ago and eventually beat, 28-7.
“The halfback pass is a gimmick play, but it’s a play that they’ve been able to utilize really more often that most teams can utilize it,” Neuqua Valley coach Bill Ellinghaus said. “So credit to them that they’re able to do that. But, yeah, they’re certainly different than they were Week 3 when we played them, And you certainly go back and you look at see how they defended things and how they were able to do things against us the first time.
“But you really take the tape that you get now and break down what they’re doing right now, which is they’re much better than they were before. They definitely give you some different looks and we’re going to have to control their run game, for sure.”
Westwood’s 169 yards on 25 carries – in addition to the halfback passes against Naperville Central and Edwardsville – have added a nice complement to Max Ihry’s 1,038 rushing yards and 12 TDs.
How Neuqua Valley goes about trying to counter that may lie in the play of its quarterback, Jack Stankoven.
Back on Sept. 11, Stankoven had a pair of early turnovers that the Warriors failed to capitalize on and turnovers have been the biggest culprit for a Wildcats’ team that has battled injuries throughout the year.
Over its last three games, Neuqua Valley has turned the ball over a combined 10 times – including three times in last week’s 29-26 upset of 14th-seeded Hinsdale Central.
Stankoven, who has thrown for 1,619 yards with 16 touchdowns and seven interceptions, knows he’ll have to be on point.
“I really like to come out and have a clean game, kind of play our best football,” he said. “It’s playoffs, so it’s do-or-die right now. Eventually – we keep this turnover thing up – it’s going to bite us in the butt. So we need to start eliminating that right now.”
With targets like Isaiah Robertson, Owen Piche and Brett Borske, Stankoven certainly isn’t short on weaponry, especially after Robertson’s seven-catch, 100-yard effort against the Red Devils last week.
Robertson accounted for 100 for Stankoven’s 124 passing yards and both touchdowns as the Wildcats put up 29 points in Hinsdale.
But it was his pick-six of Connolly and a long punt return, which set up another score, that both turned the tide against Waubonsie Valley back in September.
Warriors’ coach Paul Murphy knows his defensive backs can’t physically match up with Robertson but he knows they’ve got to be smarter when it comes to Robertson touching the ball.
“The tough matchup is when they throw an alley-oop to Robertson because he’s so damn tall and can jump,” he said. “We don’t got anybody as tall as him, so our jumps start – when we leap with him, we got to be going up when he’s coming down to have a chance to knock it out because if we jump at the same time as him, he’s going to win the battle because he can out jump us. So there’s just a lot of things that we got to do right to keep him out of the end zone.
“He actually hurt us more on defense and punt return the first time because he picked off one, went back for a touchdown and he took a punt return to our five-yard line. Those are the type of things we got to prevent. We can’t let him catch a deflected pass. The ball hits our hands; we got to catch it.
“If we’re going to punt the ball, then we got to punt the ball where we’re supposed to punt it and cover it and not let this guy run down the field and score. Just like when we kick off. If we kick it to him, we’re stupid. We got to find a way to kick it off and keep it out of his hands.”
Murphy acknowledges the atmosphere may not be as electric as it was for the 2012 state quarterfinal meeting when the two programs came in a combined 21-1.
But given Neuqua Valley’s stranglehold on the series, highlighted by a 13-5 series edge, a victory for the Warriors would be noteworthy.
It’d be huge,” Connolly said. “One of our mottos all year this year has been to leave a legacy and we got a big chance to do it here. The last time we were in the quarterfinals, we actually lost at Neuqua. So everyone probably remembers that game, too. So it just adds to it. But at the end of the day – we’ve really been living by the same: leave a legacy. We’ve got a great opportunity to add to it this Saturday.”
On the other hand, Neuqua Valley is looking for its third state quarterfinal trip in four years – all under Ellinghaus.
“It’d be huge to get back there,” Ellinghaus said. “That’s a goal. That’s a goal of ours – deep runs in the playoffs and having it right here, at home, with an opportunity to do that is a great feeling and yet you got to go take care of business and you got to go out there and play our best football. I really feel like if you can take care of the football, then we got a lot better football to be played.”
