Naperville Central’s playoff quest begins

Updated: August 25, 2011 8:37PM

You don’t have to tell Naperville Central seniors Ian Lewandowski and Matt Randolph twice.

The quarterback and running back duo, the two key returnees from last season’s 4-5 team that failed to make the playoffs, marking the first time since 2002 that the program was on the outside looking in at the postseason party, are well aware of what could await them and the rest of the seniors in 2011.

Since 1984, coach Mike Stine’s first year working at the school, no senior class at Naperville Central has failed to make the playoffs in each of its two varsity seasons.

“You can tell how bad (the coaches) want to get into the playoffs. They’ve made it obvious to us that we could be the only class to, in the entire Naperville Central history, not to make the playoffs two years in a row,” Lewandowski said. “That’s the one thing that our class doesn’t want to do. They know that and we know that, so they come out here every day with the same fire that we need to get better. They push us harder than I think they ever have. It’s what’s making us better each and every day.”

For the fifth straight season, Waubonsie Valley provides the season-opening opposition for the Redhawks as they look to start putting the bad memories of 2010 in the rear-view mirror.

“For the last three years, we’ve been in the ballgame with them,” Waubonsie Valley coach Paul Murphy said. “But one year, we had six turnovers, two years ago, we had too many penalties. Last year, we had our opportunities and we didn’t execute. We gotta execute the way we’re capable of executing. The year we beat them, we came out (and) we didn’t have penalties, we didn’t have turnovers. We executed and we beat them. Now we’ve lost three in a row to them. We’re right there.”

Waubonsie Valley’s lone triumph in the series, a 28-21 home victory in 2007, came in the first-ever meeting between the programs.

Much attention will be paid tonight to the two men on the Warriors’ offense who’ll be counted to help both Mitch Stefani and Dylan Warden at quarterback, senior wide receiver Demetrius Gray and junior running back Austin Guido, as the Warriors look to snap that three-year losing streak at the hands of the Redhawks.

In the Redhawks’ 17-10 victory in Aurora in Week 1 last season, they held Gray to just one reception for five yards while Guido ran eight times for 38 yards and lost a fumble.

“What we got to do is what we do defensively,” Stine said. “Offensively, we have to control the ball. Not put our defense in a short field. We have to set first downs. None of those guys can hurt us if we have the ball. If we can ball control it, which we think we can be a ball-control team, and first down them to death and keep the ball away from them, shorten the game and we’ll see what happens.”

Murphy knows what he’ll get from Gray week in and week out, but he has challenged Guido, who ran for 211 yards as a sophomore in Waubonsie Valley’s 33-7 victory over Brother Rice in last season’s Class 8A first round, to shoulder a significant part of the offense.

“He’s a junior now. He’s got 11 varsity games under his belt. I expect him to take the next step,” Murphy said of Guido. “I expect him to be one of the top backs in the area. I expect him to have good games every game, provided our offensive line does some blocking for him. He needs to be one of the leaders out there.

“He’s one of our four returning starters on offense. He needs to be able to show the other guys, ‘Hey, this is how the varsity game is played. I’ve been here, guys. I’ve done it. Even though I’m a junior, you guys are juniors too and we should do this. You guys listen to coach and what you’re supposed to do every second of every play.’”

While Naperville Central’s defense limited the Warriors’ offense to just one touchdown, a five-yard touchdown run from quarterback Tommy Kolzow in the first quarter that gave the Warriors a 7-0 lead, it was its running back that shone.

Making his varsity debut, Randolph ran for 91 yards and a score while showing a little bit of what was to come for the junior, who was named unanimously to the all-DuPage Valley Conference first team after tallying 902 yards and seven touchdowns.

Now a senior, Randolph knows significant attention from opposing defenses will come his way constantly throughout the year, starting tonight with a Waubonsie Valley group that limited opponents to 10 points or less six times in 2010.

“I’m definitely hoping to do better than I did last year, obviously,” Randolph said. “The offensive line is doing a great job (in practice). As long as the offensive line is doing its job, it’s gonna help me out completely. I think our offensive line is looking great and I’m not too worried about it.”

Randolph maintaining that production with another good night against the Warriors tonight might be the best way to get the Redhawks’ quest and journey to return to the playoffs off to a good start.

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