WWS 26, Naperville Central 7

If last week raised questions about the strength of this Wheaton Warrenville South football team, the Tigers had an answer Friday.

After surviving a 6-point win at Glenbard North, the Tigers won another key DuPage Valley Conference showdown, defeating Naperville Central 26-7 in Wheaton.

Michael Piatkowski threw for 2 touchdowns, Francis Adarkwa ran for 178 yards on 32 carries with a touchdown and WW South (5-0, 3-0) won its 19th consecutive game.

"This was our best and most complete game of the season," Tigers coach Ron Muhitch said. "I'm pleased with how we responded."

Big plays on defense and special teams jump-started WW South. Mike Riss blocked a punt on Naperville Central's first possession, leading to Dan Conroy's 30-yard field goal.

Six plays later Mark LaBelle recovered a fumble on a bad Naperville Central snap exchange at the Redhawks' 37, setting up Piatkowski's 9-yard touchdown pass to Mike Sloboda for a 10-0 lead.

"You can't come out and give a good team 10 points early," Naperville Central coach Mike Stine said.

Naperville Central (3-2, 1-1) trimmed the lead to 10-7 on a 1-yard run by Harrison Daniels with 5:02 left in the second quarter.

But WW South regained the momentum just before halftime, as Piatkowski found 6-foot-6 Kendrick Perry on a crossing route that he took in for a 40-yard score and 17-7 lead with 35 seconds left. Perry earlier had a 29-yard reception in WW South's first touchdown drive.

"What a great game for him," Muhitch said. "Those two catches sparked us."

On Naperville's first drive of the third quarter, the Redhawks took it to the WW South 18-yard line, Daniels completing two straight passes to Mike Schmitz for 43 yards. The two tried to hook up one more time on a pass near the goal line, but an offensive pass interference whistle backed the Redhawks to the 33, stalling the drive.

"When we got the 15 yards on the penalty," said Tigers defensive end Phil Traynor, "we took back the momentum."

WW South eventually padded the lead with Adarkwa's 4-yard touchdown run, and a 37-yard field goal by Conroy.

Adarkwa ran for 129 of his yards in the second half.

"We got rolling there in the second half," Piatkowski said.

Piatkowski completed 9 of 17 passes for 119 yards for WW South, which remained in a first-place tie in the DVC with Naperville North.

"We played back-to-back games against two really difficult teams," Piatkowski said. "It's huge to beat them."

Daniels was 12 of 20 for 157 yards for Naperville Central, which gets Naperville North next Friday.

"We'll have to stew on this one tonight," Stine said, "and we have to learn from this."