Waubonsie Valley 28, Larkin 0
The Waubonsie Valley football team accomplished many things Friday night during its 28-0 victory over Larkin at Memorial Field in Elgin.
The victory was No. 7 on the season, the most since 1997, and gave the Warriors a share of the Upstate Eight Conference championship for the first time since that season.
Maybe most impressive was shutting out the high-powered Larkin offense.
"They're a good scoring team and so it felt good to stop them," Waubonsie Valley senior linebacker Spencer Merritt said. "The D-line got a lot of pressure on the quarterback (Cam Kinley) and contained him."
The Royals (4-5, 4-3) had only 132 yards of total offense. Their only highlight was Kinley, a senior, breaking Larkin's record for passing yards in a season. He entered the game 149 yards shy of Matt Schabert's record set in 1999. Kinley finished with 174 yards on 21-of-30 passing to finish the season with 2,862 yards.
Larkin had averaged 40 points a game during the first eight games of the season but never threatened to score against the Warriors until the final drive of the game.
Waubonsie Valley (7-2, 5-1) ran the football to control the clock and keep Kinley and the Royals offense off the field.
The Warriors rushed for 312 yards. Rich Tronolone led the way with 158 yards and 2 touchdowns on 20 carries. Kenny Harrington added 131 yards and a score on 27 carries.
Warriors junior quarterback Tyler Castro, whom coach Paul Murphy said was suffering from the flu, dove in from 1 yard out with 6:10 remaining in the first quarter as Waubonsie Valley took a 7-0 lead.
Harrington added to the lead with a 5-yard touchdown run with 10:23 left in the first half to cap an 11-play, 60-yard drive.
"We were just going to hand off and beat them with running, throw a few passes to keep them honest," Murphy said. "Tyler was a gamer. He's sick as a dog and just fought through it."
Waubonsie Valley chewed up more than nine minutes with a 17-yard scoring drive that started with more than two minutes left in the third quarter and ended with a Tronolone 8-yard score with 5:06 remaining in the game. The drive began at the Warriors' 6-yard line.
Tronolone added a 1-yard run with 2:29 left.
"They were just eating up the clock on offense," Kinley said. "They kept running and running. It was frustrating standing on the sideline the whole time."
The final drive of the game featured 5 penalties on Waubonsie Valley that allowed the Royals to nearly get in the end zone, but the Warriors stopped Ryan Shriver on the 1-yard line to keep the shutout.
Waubonsie Valley lost starting linebacker Kevin Garbis for next week's playoff opener after he was ejected for two unsportsmanlike penalties on the final drive.