Wheaton Warrenville S. 35, W. Aurora 6

Had West Aurora played a perfect football game Friday night, it would have likely had its hands full with Wheaton Warrenville South, one of the best teams in the state this year.

But the Blackhawks made some mistakes, and that's not something you want to do against the Tigers, certainly not when the hosts were not in a forgiving mood.

Wheaton Warrenville South won the DuPage Valley Conference game 35-6 and was at its most devastating in the first half, rolling to a 28-0 lead.

"You just can't make mistakes," West Aurora coach Buck Drach said. "Not on their field and not with the kids they have. You can't make mistakes."

After forcing the Tigers to punt on their first possession, West Aurora fumbled on its first play from scrimmage. Seven plays later, Francis Adarkwa ran in from 5 yards for the first touchdown of the game.

The Blackhawks took the next kickoff and drove 50 yards before fumbling again. The Tigers again moved quickly upfield and scored on a Mike Piatkowski keeper.

West Aurora punted on its next 2 possessions and, each time, WW South scored touchdowns.

"The defense started off great, getting us the ball off turnovers," Piatkowski said. "We worked off of that. Then we had great balance. The line was working well on the run and the pass."

The Tigers were very efficient in moving to 6-0 for the season and 4-0 in the DVC. Piatkowski was 12-of-16 passing and 188 yards. Adarkwa gained 85 yards on 19 carries and he scored 3 touchdowns.

Leading the receiving corps was Chris Schweighardt, who caught 5 passes for 95 yards. But even here there was balance: Piatkowski hit six receivers in the first half alone.

"The line gave me plenty of time to scan the field," Piatowski said. "I just looked for the open receiver and threw him the ball."

West Aurora (3-3, 1-3) continued to move the ball and finished with 227 yards of total offense. The Blackhawks got on the board in the final two minutes when Derrick Smith hit Tim Soloff with an 8-yard halfback option pass.

West Aurora had a scare in the third quarter when Isaac Portillo went down injured and stayed on the field. He was taken from the field on a stretcher, but Drach said he was getting feeling back even as he was being taken from the field and transported to Central DuPage Hospital.

"He got a lot better while he was laying there, so (the medical staff) was pretty positive," Drach said. "They just wanted to make sure he'd be OK. He had all his feeling and he was never unconscious."

-- Darryl Mellema

Glenbard North 41, West Chicago 7:ŒTwo teams with identical losing records trying to make their way through the DuPage Valley Conference minefield without further damage squared off in West Chicago.

The visiting Glenbard North Panthers not only cruised through safely, they dropped a 41-7 bomb on the host Wildcats with a balanced offense and stingy defense.

West Chicago got an early sign that it might be in for a long night when the Glenbard North defense stuffed the running game on three straight plays.

But it was the ensuing punt that gave the Wildcats headaches when Panthers returner Matt Ng looked like he might let the punt drop and be downed by West Chicago.

Instead, the ball took a quick bounce toward Ng near his own 40-yard line and he ran straight up the middle of the field virtually untouched in going 60 yards for the game's opening score.

West Chicago quickly answered the Panthers' opening TD with an 84-yard drive that ended with James Eckler hauling in an 18-yard scoring strike from Chris Wille.

Just two minutes into the second quarter, Panthers quarterback Evan Watkins scored on an 8-yard bootleg play and the Panthers were ready to roll.

Watkins added insult to injury late in the half when he was setting up his players in a shotgun formation and the snap suddenly came back and started bouncing around near the 20-yard line. Watkins picked up the ball, eluded two tacklers, sprinted around and found Ng on a 6-yard scoring strike.

"I believe Evan was making some type of an adjustment at the line and the center thought it was the cadence and snapped the ball," said Glenbard North coach Ryan Wilkens. "He just picked it up and started running around and he has the kind of arm that can fling it 30 yards on a rope."

West Chicago (2-4, 1-3) was never able to fight back, because Panthers running back Tyler Doll controlled the clock with his rushing yards and scored on a 1-yard run in the second quarter and 4-yard touchdown run in the fourth.

Brian Hackett added field goals of 37 and 22 yards in the rout.

West Chicago coach John Walters thought the turning point came when his team was unable to mount any offensive drives after it had tied the score at 7-7.

"We had two consecutive series when we had the ball pinned back in our territory and we couldn't get anything going, and Glenbard had two quick scores and that changed the momentum," Walters said.

Walters said that Glenbard North (3-3, 2-2) has always played solid defense.

"In the end you have to tip your hat to your opponent, and Glenbard North played great run defense and played a great game," Walters said.

Glenbard North held West Chicago to only 20 yards rushing and 6 first downs. The Panthers offense piled up 356 total yards, with 223 of those on the ground.

-- Dave Heun

Naperville North 35, Naperville Central 13:ŒNaperville Central quarterback Harrison Daniels put up some big numbers against Naperville North, but that's not to say he was feeling all that great afterward.

Despite passing for 312 yards and two scores, Daniels and the Redhawks (3-3, 2-2) were not able to slow down unbeaten Naperville North as the Huskies prevailed 35-13 in front of a full house at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium at North Central College.

Daniels was feeling the effects of a tough loss coupled with several hard blows to his body. The Huskies hurried the Redhawks quarterback into a key interception in the first quarter that set up North's first touchdown. Naperville North (6-0, 4-0) also sacked Daniels six times and hit him hard on many other occasions.

"We wanted to get to him a lot because we knew he was a good quarterback," said Huskies defensive lineman Kyle Lackner, who spent much of the evening chasing Daniels down. "Coach (Sean) Drendel called a lot of good schemes that got the D-ends and the linebackers some sacks. We got some good pressure."

It was pressure from Lackner and Vince Mazzone that forced Daniels into a rushed throw that was intercepted by Ben Kelsey at the Redhawks 13-yard line in the first quarter. Kelsey returned the ball to the Central 9 and two plays later North fullback Tyrone Saunders pushed his way into the end zone with the first of his two 1-yard scores.

"I attribute that interception a lot to the defensive line," Kelsey said. "They made him scramble and throw on the run and I got a hand on it and was lucky to pull it down. Then our offense did what it's done all year: turn turnovers into points."

The Huskies upped their lead to 21-0 in the second quarter following TD runs from Jordan Tassio and Tom Costantino, but Daniels and Co. would not go down without a fight.

First the Redhawks struck on an 80-yard touchdown pass to Mike Schmitz, who finished the game with 8 catches for 187 yards. That cut the gap to 21-7 at the half. Then Daniels guided a hurry-up offense at the start of the second half and the Redhawks drove inside the Huskies 5-yard line before another costly turnover did them in. Danny Hess caused a fumble and Lackner came away with the ball at the 4-yard line.

Instead of a chance to get within 21-14, the Redhawks let a golden chance slip away and Naperville North proved to be too good of a team to let off the hook. Saunders scored on a 1-yard run late in the third quarter and, after Central turned the ball over on downs deep in its own territory, the Huskies sealed the win with Tassio's 29-yard TD pass to Costantino to make it 35-7 with 11:05 left in the fourth quarter.

"I'm proud as heck," Central coach Mike Stine said. "We battled and that's a good football team they have there. North made the plays but I felt like we grew up a little bit."

-- Stan Goff

Driscoll 42, St. Edward 16:ŒDriscoll made one of the oldest cliches in all of sports a reality in Addison against St. Edward as the Highlanders won 42-16.

Close till kickoff.

The Green Wave received the opening kickoff and fumbled 3 plays later, setting up an Austin Baker 17-yard toucdown reception from Dave Schwabe with 10:28 remaining in the first quarter.

Less than two minutes later, St. Edward fumbled again on a pitch and Driscoll's Tim Franken took a handoff and bounced it to the outside and went in for a 58-yard touchdown run.

The Highlanders scored two touchdowns on their first three offensive plays of the game.

"Last week we had some letdowns and didn't do what we needed to do," Franken said. "This was our homecoming game and we wanted to go out and play Driscoll football. We did that tonight on both sides of the ball. We are pretty satisfied with how we played, but we can still play better."

Later in the first quarter Driscoll once again scored touchdowns in very fast fashion as it put up 14 points in a 2:40 span.

Schwabe scored on a quarterback keeper around the left side for a 39-yard score, and then Franken caught a 7-yard strike from Schwabe with five seconds remaining in the first quarter.

In that first quarter the Highlanders put 28 points up on the board in just 13 plays.

"We came out thinking that we can play with them," St. Edward's Moises Quiroga said. "After the first series it looked like some of us were scared to be playing against a six-time defending state champion. We already thought we were beat before we stepped onto the field."

Midway through the third period Ricky Divito scored on a 19-yard pass from Steve Schwabe to put Driscoll up 42-0, forcing the running clock into effect.

"In five of the six games this season, we have been able to give our starters some nice rest time because they have played well in the first half and built big leads," Driscoll coach Mike Burzawa said. "We wanted to come out and execute and feed off the homecoming momentum and we did."

The Green Wave was able to make the game closer by Quiroga scoring on an 85-yard kickoff return and then recovering an onside kick and scoring on a Ryan Gilbert keeper and once again converting on the 2-point conversion.

Even though the game looked lopsided, St. Edward still came away with a confidence boost. Despite an 0-6 record and 0-4 in conference, three of the losses were by a combined 8 points.

"The 16 points we put up tonight were not a fluke," Quiroga said. "We played really tough against Marian earlier this season. And the 42 points they put up was a little confusing. They didn't play that well to put up that many points on us tonight."

Franken played one half and had 149 yards on 7 carries and 3 touchdowns.

Quiroga and Jimmy Mathisen combined for 93 yards on 20 carries in the loss.

-- Jason Watt

Rockford Christian Life 55, Wheaton Academy 28:ŒDespite a 55-28 nonconference loss to Rockford Christian Life, Wheaton Academy actually played pretty well. The Warriors were done in by a series of mistakes during the second quarter and the first two minutes of the third quarter, when the Eagles scored 36 unanswered points.

Trailing 42-7 in the third quarter, the Warriors rallied behind sophomore quarterback Brian Pell. Pell led Wheaton Academy to 3 third-quarter touchdowns, but the Warriors (2-4) couldn't dig themselves all the way out of the big hole.

Pell completed 16 of 27 passes for 227 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also ran for a score.

Seven of Pell's completions, covering 115 yards, went to Josh Kuell. Kuell caught both of the TD passes.

In the big third quarter he led touchdown drives of 64, 74, and 42 yards. The last came after Daniel Spitler recovered an onside kickoff.

Pell capped the first drive with a 17-yard pass to Kuell and the second with a 5-yarder to Kuell. He scored the third himself on a 5-yard run, pushing the pile into the end zone.

"I was very happy with how our offense battled in the second half," said Wheaton Academy coach Ben Wilson. "Our quarterback Brian Pell had his best game of the season, I thought. Hopefully, we'll learn from it and get better."

After Wheaton Academy took a 7-6 lead, things began to unravel for the Warriors. Christian Life regained the lead following a 15-play drive. The Eagles scored again on a 1-play drive after a bad snap on a punt set them up at the 26-yard line. Pell was sacked on back-to-back plays before the ill-fated punt attempt.

Another long drive gave the Eagles a 28-7 halftime lead.

Christian Life pounded away at the Eagles all night, rushing for 283 yards. Zander Pineschi ran for 102 and 2 scores, and Paul Yuccus added 95 yards and another score.

But it was the start of the third quarter that really put the Warriors in a hole. First, A.J. Nice returned the second-half kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown. Two plays later, a fumble recover set the Eagles up at the 5-yard line, where Pineschi took it in. Christian Life's female kicker, Lativia Koslofski, converted the extra point for a 42-7 lead.

"Against a team like this, any mistakes you make, they're going to capitalize on," Wilson said.

The buzz on the sideline was about the possibility of a running clock if Christian Life scored again. Indeed, an apparent blocked punt would have given the Eagles -- already leading 49-14 -- the ball at the 2-yard line. However, a roughing-the-passer call gave the ball back to the Warriors, who wound up scoring on the drive.

-- Allen Oshinski

St. Charles East 17, Neuqua Valley 14:ŒFor one night, St. Charles East's balanced offensive attack was just a little better than Neuqua Valley's human highlight show.

Senior quarterback Sam Gunther completed 15 of 29 passes for 158 yards, while Chris Caci and backfield mate Wes Allen split the rushing chores during the Saints' 17-14 Upstate Eight Conference victory over the Wildcats Friday in St. Charles.

While inching closer to an UEC title, the Saints (5-1, 4-0) also snapped a four-year losing skid against the three-time defending conference champion Wildcats (2-4, 2-2).

Neuqua Valley had outscored the Saints by a lopsided 125-39 margin from 2003-06.

"I don't know if this is our Super Bowl," said Saints coach Ted Monken, "but this is our nemesis. Two years in a row, the conference championship has come down to our game. It's really nice to finally get over that hump."

Throughout the majority of the first half, the Saints were faced with an uphill climb.

An interception and 40-yard return by senior linebacker Britt Andros helped set up the Wildcats' first touchdown -- a 1-yard run by Anton Wilkins midway through the second quarter.

With 21 seconds left in the first half, Gunther bought some time with a nifty play-action fake before tossing a 3-yard TD strike to tight end Jess Striedl. David Winn's PAT kick gave the Saints a 7-6 halftime advantage.

St. Charles East rode the momentum into the opening series of the second half, driving 47 yards before Winn's 35-yard field goal upped the margin to 10-6.

-- Craig Brueske