Naperville Central turns back Batavia
A midseason nonconference meeting between a pair of football powers ended up leaning decisively in favor of the one with the prolific quarterback-to-receiver connection.
Visiting Naperville Central used a big performance from senior quarterback Conor Joyce to earn a 34-14 victory at Batavia on Friday in a meeting of DuPage Valley Conference and Upstate Eight powers.
Naperville Central (5-1) was ranked sixth in the most recent Class 8A state polling from Associated Press, while Batavia (5-1) was ranked fifth in Class 7A.
Joyce's main target, to no one's surprise, was Iowa-bound senior Emmanuel Rugamba.
Joyce finished 12-for-20 passing for 263 yards and 3 touchdowns, all of them to Rugamba.
"We knew Batavia was a great team, and like playing another DVC opponent," said Joyce. "This win is a big confidence boost for our team, absolutely."
The final line on Rugamba was 6 catches for 119 yards. The Redhawks outgained Batavia 432-249.
"I've been pushing for coach (Mike) Stine to get a few more plays like that," Joyce said. "Sometimes it's nice to just throw the ball in the air - you've got a guy like Manny who will make a play. He's just an outstanding all-around athlete and we're just lucky to have him on our team."
Rugamba also made an interception on Batavia's first drive of the night. That became a theme in the game - Batavia was able to move the ball but couldn't convert drives into points.
The Bulldogs only punted once yet only scored 14 points after not scoring fewer than 28 points in any of their previous games this season.
"That's a really good offense," Stine said. "They put a lot of pressure on you. But our defense was able to make plays. Our defense is bend and not break. We haven't given up big plays. You are going to have to earn it. Most of the time you are going to have 10-, 15-play drives to score - that's what usually it takes. It's hard for an offense to do that."
The Joyce-to-Rugamba connection was in fine form early. Naperville Central led 14-0 after one quarter following Rugamba touchdown catches of 44 and 42 yards, both on long fly patterns that beat the Bulldogs.
"What are you going to do?" Batavia coach Dennis Piron asked. "We tried to double him. You double him too much they are going to run the ball. He makes it tough on you with his skill set. Hats off them. I just feel we could have showed better. I don't feel we played our best game."
Batavia answered with a 3-yard touchdown run from Zach Garrett to pull within 14-7 at halftime.
The Bulldogs stopped the Redhawks on a 4th-and-2 to start the second half, getting great field position at the Redhawks' 40-yard line.
The turning point of the game followed, Batavia fumbling two plays later with a chance to go in for the tying score. Trent Graves recovered, and Joyce marched the Redhawks down the field and again found Rugamba, this time on a 12-yard bubble screen for a 21-7 lead with 6:07 left in the third.
The outgame was never really in doubt from there, Naperville Central adding fourth quarter touchdown runs from Jeremiah Wiggins and Luke Brady.
"We feel we can throw it with the best of them and we can run it," Stine said. "You have to pick your poison. There are a lot of good quarterbacks in the state but I don't want anyone else quarterbacking our team than No. 10. He's special. He makes a lot of plays."
Batavia quarterback Kyle Niemiec completed 17 of 26 passes for 151 yards. Canaan Coffey caught 8 of those passes for 75 yards.
But the big plays were few and far behind, a 25-yard strike to Cole Stokke and a late hook-and-ladder 20-yard gain the only plays over 13 yards.
"I think we could have made it a much better football game in that second half," Piron said. "We compete very hard almost all the time. But there were moments in that game where you have a little letup and they went for it and it paid off big dividends for them."
Garrett scored both touchdowns for Batavia, who lost the turnover battle 2-0.
"They are too good of a team to make mistakes against," Piron said. "They are a very good high school football team and they are gaining steam. As proud as we are, and as far as we've come and as talented as our kids are and the successes we've had recently, I do feel for whatever reason we were a little bit starry-eyed tonight. Especially early on in the game."