Despite its recent penchant for being able to turn away deficits, Waubonsie Valley’s grind-it-out style certainly can play better with a lead.
On Saturday, opposite sixth-seeded Naperville Central in the fourth state quarterfinal in program history, 30th-seeded Waubonsie Valley finally got to see why.
With Max Ihry’s 139 rushing yards and their young defense leading the way, the Warriors posted a 17-0 shutout victory over the Redhawks.
For the third time in as many postseason games, Ihry eclipsed the 100-yard mark for the Warriors.
Ihry’s two-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter gave them a 10-0 lead to finish a three-play, 55-yard scoring drive that followed a turnover on downs from Naperville Central.
“We realize that we really can’t let up because last year, the Central team, they came back and beat us,” Ihry said of the Redhawks’ 24-14, Class 8A second-round triumph in 2014. “I think – this year – we’ve been a lot better about keeping our leads and just finishing strong.
“The short runs have been winning us games all year, so why stop now?”
The victory moves Waubonsie Valley (8-4) into its first state semifinal since 1992 against 23rd-seeded Marist, a 38-35 winner over 15th-seeded Oswego, next week.
“We’ve been living by ‘leave a legacy’ all summer, all season,” Warriors’ quarterback Jack Connolly said. “Obviously, 5-4 wasn’t necessarily how we wanted to do it, but being only the second team in school history and first since 1992, is leaving a legacy.”
Ron Griffin’s defensive charges forced three Redhawk turnovers on the way to securing the program’s first postseason shutout since a 33-0 shutout of Downers Grove North in a 1992 Class 6A state quarterfinal.
After seeing an earlier interception of Redhawks’ quarterback Conor Joyce nullified because of offsetting penalties, Trevon Moore helped seal matters with an interception with 5:04 left in regulation.
“We just try to come out 11 cats on the ball every play,” Moore said. “We don’t try to do too much. We stay in our circle and we get turnovers from working hard and it’s paying off.”
Visiting Dick Kerner Stadium for the fourth time in two years and for the first time since being handed a 15-14 loss on Sept. 19, Naperville Central (10-2) came out hot.
The Redhawks marched down the field from their own 37 to the Warriors’ nine-yard line, but a Moore recovery of Matt Lehmann fumble at the eight-yard line halted matters.
“Big. It was huge because they were going to go up 7-0,” Waubonsie Valley coach Paul Murphy said. “That was huge and we’ve had a knack for getting them to turn the ball over. I don’t know what the magic potion is, but we got to figure out and bottle that sucker.”
A pair of turnover on downs in the second half for the Redhawks helped turn the momentum onto the Warriors side after the first half saw the Warriors go into halftime up 3-0.
After a pair of sacks on Joyce led to Ihry’s 55 yards on the three-play scoring drive to put Waubonsie Valley up 10-0, defensive pressure forced a Joyce fourth-down overthrow to Emmanuel Rugamba.
Nine plays and 60 yards later, a 10-yard Connolly touchdown run put the Warriors up 17-0 55 seconds into the fourth.
Connolly was seven-of-10 passing for 62 yards while also running for 30 yards.
“We knew (Ihry’s touchdown) was big,” Connolly said. “Central’s a great team, so we needed to keep building on that because we knew it was 3-0. We didn’t think 3-0 was going to do it. We just wanted to keep building and Max getting that second (score) was huge.”
In the earlier meeting, Naperville Central was able to move the ball but couldn’t punch it into the end zone.
Exactly eight weeks later, its second visit to Aurora this year proved much of the same – starting with the Lehmann fumble on its first drive of the game.
“The better team won,” Naperville Central coach Mike Stine said. “They played faster. They played quicker. We made some mistakes early and they were able to capitalize. I give all the credit to Waubonsie. They were the better football team – offensively and defensively.
“Offensively, we moved the ball at times. We turned it over. We had three turnovers and in a quarterfinal game – you can’t have the turnovers and we did at crucial times. We had some crucial penalties in some key times. In big games, you can’t have that. They played error-free. They played great. Hats off to Murph and those guys – they deserve to win.”
Joyce finished 11-of-18 passing for 111 yards and the Moore interception for Naperville Central while Iowa-bound Emmanuel Rugamba caught seven passes for 63 yards.
Lee Bell’s 24-yard field goal for Waubonsie Valley with 15 seconds left in the first half marked all the scoring for either team.
After forcing a punt deep in Naperville Central territory, Waubonsie Valley drove from the Naperville Central 35-yard line to inside the 10-yard line before Bell was called on to kick.
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