Aurora Christian 77, Lake Forest Academy 6
Aurora Christian quarterback Jordan Roberts is on track to break several records in his career, but he may have set an unofficial one against nonconference Lake Forest Academy Friday -- for being the most bummed out anyone has ever been after scoring 8 touchdowns in a half.
That's right. Roberts threw 7 TD passes in compiling 333 yards through the air in the first half and also ran for a 41 yard TD score in accounting for all of his team first half 55 points and 374 yards as Aurora Christian (4-0) posted a 77-6 victory at East Aurora's field.
Roberts hooked up with sophomore wideout Mat Morse for 3 touchdowns in the first quarter, including a 24 yard grab in the game's first minute, followed by a juggling 23-yard catch for Morse and 47-yard TD catch right at the end of the first quarter. Michael Friend also caught a 10-yard TD pass in the opening quarter and Joe Redmond got into the action with 2 TD catches in the second quarter, which featured a 56-yard bomb that was a perfect strike from Roberts.
John Smith capped the first-half explosion with a one-handed catch and run just before halftime.
Despite all this, Roberts saw room for improvement.
"The stats are good, but I've been really trying to work on my completion percentage," said Roberts, who was 14-of-25 in the game. "One drive we had down here I was 0-for-3, I had some overthrows and a couple times, I rushed out of the pocket. I didn't really need to, I could have just stepped out of the way, the protection was fine."
Eagles coach Don Beebe actually agreed with his star QB.
"I told him, 'You know what, Jordan? Statistically you are putting up some numbers, but we both know we could do better,' " Beebe said. "My expectations for Jordan are higher -- they just are. And I think that is good thing because he's a kid that can handle it. If I felt like mentally he was getting down, I would coach him differently, but Jordan is not that kind of kid. He wants to be great, so I want to prepare him to be great.
"We are going to look at the film tomorrow and he is going to see that he could have made some better throws and done some better things because he doesn't want to be an average quarterback. He has big visions, big dreams and I'm going to help him as much as I can."
The Eagles' defense not only held the Caxys (0-3) scoreless most of the game, but actually to negative total yards until Lake Forest Academy running back Rickey Larke broke off a 72-yard run late in the game.
With Roberts out of the game in the second half, Aurora Christian tried to run some clock but every time one of its backs touched the ball, they broke free for a touchdown. Sean O'Boyle had a 53 yard TD run, Dan Earwood a 43 yard TD run and David Zielke capped the third one play scoring drive of the second half with a 64 yard TD run.
Aurora Christian's biggest win may have been that it didn't have to show too much to rival Chicago Christian, the team the Eagles play next week.
"It will be a great game next week," Beebe said. "It will be fun one to watch."