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Opening drive sets tone as Waubonsie tops Central
Teams spend countless hours throughout the summer and fall camp preparing for the anticipation that the last Friday of August brings.
For Waubonsie Valley, that hard work couldn’t have paid off more handsomely against Naperville Central Friday night in Naperville.
Opening as the opposition for Naperville Central for the fifth straight season, Waubonsie Valley set an appropriate tone early on its way to earning a season-opening 21-7 victory.
Junior running back Austin Guido’s 37-yard jaunt into the end zone to cap a six-play, 80-yard opening drive gave the Warriors a quick 7-0 lead with just 2:10 elapsed off the first quarter clock and a vast amount of momentum.
“I’ve been coaching 35 years — I’ve never had a first drive that went like clockwork,” Waubonsie Valley coach Paul Murphy said. “I think we had a five-yard penalty on a false start, but other than that, we were like clockwork. That’s how we are a lot in practice and there are days in practice where we can’t get a yard.”
While the Redhawk defense stiffened up against Guido after the game’s opening score in holding him to 60 yards on 14 carries, Warriors’ senior quarterback Mitch Stefani picked up the slack as the game went on.
Going 11-of-16 for 180 yards with two touchdowns and an interception in his varsity debut, Stefani’s two long touchdown strikes to junior tight end Troy Fumagalli opened up the field quite nicely for Waubonsie Valley (1-0).
“We definitely came out ready to go,” Stefani said. “We watched the sophomores. They really didn’t have it (in a 36-26 loss), but it really energized us to get us motivated to play Central because they’ve got it done the last couple years (against us).”
The Warriors’ defense forced three Redhawk turnovers in the first half, including a pair of Ian Lewandowski interceptions, continuing to set the tone.
Lewandowski struggled through the air for the majority of the night, completing only 3-of-10 passes for 72 yards, 55 of which came on a 55-yard touchdown pass to junior wideout Blake Butler with 2:26 left in regulation.
Because of Lewandowski’s ineffectiveness in the passing game, Naperville Central (0-1) had to resort heavily to its running game. Senior Matt Randolph ran 27 times for 129 yards in the losing effort.
“This game, this series or this game, if you look back, I think this is the fifth or sixth time we’ve played,” Naperville Central coach Mike Stine said. “The team that turns the ball over the most times loses. In the past, we’ve been fortunate not to do that. (Friday), we had three turnovers and had a couple key penalties on some plays. We shot ourselves in the foot.”
While that’s definitely true, much credit should go to Waubonsie Valley, which controlled the game throughout in snapping its three-game losing streak to Naperville Central.
“That’s what we talked about the last three days,” Murphy said. “We gotta come out here and we gotta let Naperville Central and the DVC know we’re here to play football. We’re not a pushover. We’re not somebody they beat last year.”
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