Walther Lutheran takes down Aurora Central

Updated: October 8, 2011 6:06PM

Uninspired performances lead to undesirable results.

The Aurora Central football team found that out the hard way Saturday afternoon at Walther Lutheran, falling 28-26 after giving up the game-winning touchdown with under three minutes left in the game. The Chargers were then stopped on downs with 47 seconds left to end the game.

The loss damaged the Chargers’ playoff hopes, dropping them to 3-4 overall and 1-3 in the Suburban Christian Conference Gold with two games remaining against Wheaton Academy and Aurora Christian.

“We haven’t gotten a whole lot better with our play in the first half,” Chargers coach Brian Casey said. “We’re going to have to do that if we want to take that next step. We’re still a work in progress. I thought we battled and were certainly in a spot to win, but in the fourth quarter they made a play and we didn’t.”

The Chargers were down 14-12 to the Broncos (2-5, 1-3) at half, having turned the ball over, been blocked on a punt and an extra point, and failed on a 2-point conversion.

Aurora Central had trouble running inside the tackles — with only a little more success on the outside — and with every defensive stop, the Broncos’ depleted roster gained belief.

Najee Toomer’s 90-yard touchdown run was the game’s first score and gave Walther its first spark.

“It got us going,” Broncos’ coach Bruce Tuomi said. “Our kids played hard. We’ve struggled all year, but we’re slowly getting better. I’m sure they looked at us and said ‘Oh, easy win,’ but we battled Aurora (Christian) for a half and we’ve had so many injuries.”

Aurora Central quarterback Kyle Clechenko rushed for two first half touchdowns and Luke Dickerson rushed for 136 yards and two second half touchdowns, but the Broncos’ two-way effort — despite carrying 20 less players on their roster than the Chargers — was the difference.

Walther Lutheran quarterback Joe Lomnicki threw touchdowns to Jeff Walker and Justin McGrady in the game.

But it was a Lomnicki-to-McGrady 54-yard catch-and-run on third down that set up Toomer’s game-winning 6-yard keeper from the wildcat formation.

“Our effort has been slowly getting better and better,” Tuomi said. “We’ve finally been playing hard. It’s nice that it came together. I’m just happy.”

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