Waubonsie Valley QB Stefani out indefinitely

Updated: September 14, 2011 10:20AM

Waubonsie Valley coach Paul Murphy takes a lot of pride in the fact his program has done well consistently year in and year out despite consistently replacing quarterbacks.

Tyler Castro, Kenny Clay and Tommy Kolzow all led the Warriors to playoff appearances in each of the past three seasons and senior Mitch Stefani was anointed as the next in line.

Expected to do the same, Stefani led the Warriors to their first 2-0 start in Murphy’s seven-year tenure with victories over Naperville Central and Oswego but broke his collarbone early in the third quarter in last Friday’s 27-20 loss at Bartlett.

Junior Dylan Warden replaced Stefani, who will be out anywhere from four to six weeks, according to Murphy. Warden led Waubonsie Valley to all three of its fourth-quarter scores, including a pair of 3-yard touchdown runs against the Hawks.

Saying last week that Warden needs to “get up to the speed of the varsity level,” Murphy will now look to the athletic junior to try and get the Warriors back on track Friday at home against Lake Park.

Tough schedules for Metea, Benet

Off to the program’s first 3-0 start after last Friday’s 47-0 shutout of Upstate Eight Valley rival East Aurora, Metea Valley has definitely served notice that Year 2 is off to a much different start than its 1-8 finish in 2010 represented.

But while opening the season with three victories against three teams that have combined for the same number of victories, three, Metea Valley coach Ted Monken is well aware that the sledding is going to get much tougher for his Mustangs.

“Believe me, we’re gonna face a whole lot tougher opponents than what we’re gonna face these first three games,” Monken said last week. “We’re going to see teams with better balance. We’re going to see teams with overall better team speed and size. We have to get ready.”

In the next four weeks, starting with Saturday’s visit to South Elgin, Metea Valley will face opponents that have combined to pick up seven victories through the season’s first three weeks.

Highlighting that four-week stretch is back-to-back games against District 204 rivals Waubonsie Valley and Neuqua Valley on Sept. 23 and Sept. 30, respectively.

“I think all of us want to play the best,” Monken said. “We could schedule a whole bunch of small schools, we could line up anytime you want and just roll out of bed and beat them. That wouldn’t do anything but pad our record and give us a false sense of pride. I think we want to play the best competition we can play and see where we stand. I think every good coach wants to do that. I hope our kids are excited about that challenge, too.” While Metea Valley has its first 3-0 start in program history, Benet is dealing with its first 0-3 start to a season since 2007.

Dropping their third straight East Suburban Catholic Conference game to begin the year, the Redwings lost 27-9 at St. Patrick on Friday.

Looking for any reprieve, the schedule doesn’t provide it for Benet, which hosts Marist Friday before playing host to Joliet Catholic on Sept. 24 and traveling to play Washington High School in South Bend, Ind. on Oct. 7.

“There’s no gimme on the schedule, so we realize at some point here we’ve got to step it up and play as hard as we can and squeak out any victory in any way we can,” Redwings’ coach Pat New said.

Penalties hurt Huskies

Knowing its margin of error wasn’t very big in heading over to Wheaton Friday to tangle with Wheaton North in opening DuPage Valley Conference play, Naperville North got off to a good start in taking a 13-7 lead into halftime.

The Huskies were able to jump in front because of their 152 rushing yards in the first half, but the offense bogged down in the second half as the Falcons made a concerted effort to stop both Huskies’ quarterback Tyler Gehr and running back Dan Puknaitis on the ground.

While Wheaton North made some adjustments on defense, the nine penalties for 69 yards that Naperville North committed didn’t help matters as Wheaton North kept the Huskies off the scoreboard in the second half in recording a 24-13 victory.

“It’s obviously a problem and we haven’t shored it up,” Naperville North coach Sean Drendel said. “It’s not for lack of effort. Our kids are playing hard. We just need to shore some things up. When we do, I think we’ll be a good football team.”

The nine penalties committed against the Falcons, raising their season total to 28 in just three weeks, came a week after the Huskies were called for 11 penalties in their 14-10 victory over Thornton.

O-line paves way for Randolph

From the start of fall practice on Aug. 10, Naperville Central coach Mike Stine has been heaping much praise upon the Redhawks’ offensive line, saying on a couple different occasions that this year’s group may be the best since 1999, when Central won the state title.

It’s all gonna come down to our offensive line and I compare this offensive line a lot to the one we had in ’99. (Ryan) Clifford’s been coaching with us and this offensive line is very comparable,” Stine said before the season. “We go 290, 280, 270, 260, 220 across the board and they can move. They’ve worked. (Mike) Keller started at 330, he has worked his way down to 290, 285. (Senior Dan) Teich was at 285, he’s down at 275. So they’ve worked hard to get down to their playing weight. They’re at their playing weight. We’re excited to see. We’ll be as good as those guys up front.”

Some of what Stine has been talking about was on perfect display Friday in Naperville Central’s 48-7 rout of Glenbard East.

Led by seniors Sean Goldner and Mike Keller, the offensive line enabled senior running back Matt Randolph to run for 271 yards and five touchdowns, all of which came in the first half.

Looking to build upon that momentum, Naperville Central travels to West Aurora on Friday, in search of a 2-0 start in DVC play before heading over to Wheaton to play two-time defending DVC and Class 7A state champion Wheaton Warrenville South on Sept. 23.

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