Boudreau expected to return for Neuqua Valley

Updated: September 6, 2011 6:56PM

A week after he and teammates racked up 492 total yards offensively in a 37-23 Week 1 victory over Naperville North, Neuqua Valley senior quarterback Nate Boudreau had a rough go of it against Naperville Central.

Completing only nine of 21 passes for 104 yards in Neuqua Valley’s 28-14 loss at Central, Boudreau was picked off three times, including twice by Redhawks defensive back Ross Murphy.

Hurt during Murphy’s runback on his second pilfer of the night with 3:52 left in the game, Boudreau needed the assistance of two trainers to get off the field and junior Dylan Andrew replaced him under center before promptly throwing yet another interception to Murphy.

“He’s hurting. He’s hurting pretty bad,” Neuqua Valley coach Bryan Wells said of Boudreau after the loss. “He’s banged up. His hip and his left arm are banged up pretty bad. Hard to stand back there and take a pounding like that. And he took one.”

A day after the loss to the Redhawks, Wells said he believes Boudreau will play Friday against St. Charles North.

Against Naperville North, in his first varsity start, Boudreau completed 8-of-17 passes for 187 yards and a touchdown.

Wilcox shines again for Metea

Looking for perhaps the biggest reason for Metea Valley’s first 2-0 start? Look no further than junior running back Cameron Wilcox.

Subbing for the injured Tre’Sean Mackey in the Mustangs’ season-opening, 38-26 victory at Plainfield East, Wilcox gained 215 yards on 26 carries and scored twice.

“We knew Cameron is a good back. He’s very physical, runs hard,” coach Ted Monken said of Wilcox last week prior to the game against Quincy. “He’s thick and runs so hard, he’s hard to bring down. He doesn’t get knocked down easily, so we knew he’d be pretty good. But we didn’t know he’d be quite that good in his first game. Hopefully he’ll continue to play at that level. You’d hate to have a dip or a fall off in any way, but we got Tre’Sean back this week. Hopefully the two of those guys will create a nice 1-2 punch and keep defenses guessing.”

With Mackey back in the lineup Friday in Metea Valley’s home opener against Quincy, Wilcox kept up the solid production in the Mustangs’ 31-7 victory.

Rushing 15 times for 152 yards, Wilcox scored three times while Mackey ran for 86 yards on nine carries in his 2011 season debut.

Waubonsie off on right foot

While three area teams entered Week 2 hoping to avoid 0-2 starts, Waubonsie Valley was looking to go somewhere it hadn’t been since 1992.

Courtesy of victories at Naperville Central and Friday’s 34-14 home triumph over Oswego in the season’s first two weeks, the Warriors are off to their first 2-0 start under seventh-year coach Paul Murphy. It is the program’s first 2-0 start since winning 12 games in 1992, a campaign that ended with a 15-13 loss to Naperville North in a Class 6A state semifinal.

“Obviously, if you win your two nonconference games, it takes a lot of pressure off you when you get to the conference, in terms of having to qualify for the state playoffs,” Murphy said last week. “From there, in theory, you only need three of your last seven to get enough wins. That doesn’t mean you got enough points. You need four of your last seven to guarantee the playoffs. I guess it reduces the pressure in you to make the playoffs, but you still got the conference lineup to go through.

“If your goals are (to be) conference champs, you gonna try and win all those as well. It helps in the long run, near the end of the season. Hopefully you can get enough wins to get a home playoff game. Two-and-oh would go a long way to helping us for that chance, get that home playoff game.”

Last year, Waubonsie Valley broke a nine-year postseason victory drought with a 33-7 home victory over Brother Rice in the Class 8A first round before falling in double overtime at Homewood-Flossmoor the very next week.

Central’s defense plays tough

In the aftermath of last Friday’s 28-14 home victory over Neuqua Valley, Naperville Central coaches made it abundantly clear that a few players took the Week 1 loss to Waubonsie Valley particularly hard.

The Redhawks’ defense, which played well in the loss to the Warriors, took the challenge of trying to stop a Neuqua Valley offense that piled up 492 total yards against Naperville North just a week earlier to heart.

Limiting the Wildcats to only 206 total yards offensively, the Redhawks’ defense forced five turnovers, including three interceptions from senior defensive back Ross Murphy.

The chief concern coming in was how Naperville Central would handle the Wildcats’ junior duo of Joey Rhattigan and Danny Dudek on the ground.

Rhattigan and Dudek combined to have 301 of Neuqua Valley’s 305 rushing yards and combined to score four touchdowns against Naperville North.

The Redhawks proceeded to limit the duo to just 88 yards while both of Rhattigan’s touchdowns were set up by short fields.

“We had a good game plan coming in. All their running stuff, that’s our strength,” Murphy said. “That’s our strength and we showed up tonight in the run, definitely.”

Both Naperville Central coach Mike Stine and defensive coordinator Mike Ulreich talked about how the coaching staff challenged the seniors during practice last week, and both couldn’t have been more proud of their team’s effort on defense.

“Absolutely huge,” Ulreich said of avoiding an 0-2 start. “We didn’t talk about it. We just talked about ownership over what we could control. But in the back of our minds, this was a big one. And that was a great football team. They have a lot of weapons. They were scary to watch on film. One night, I stopped watching them because I couldn’t go to sleep, but our guys just played hard. We stressed effort all summer. We really hold them accountable for effort. It’s starting to show, but it’s there. They were outstanding.”

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