Aurora Central battles but can't topple Mendota

Aurora Central will want to bottle whatever mojo it had working in the second half of Friday night's season-opener and hope to put it to good use in the future.

But the Chargers will want to make it sure it works for both halves of future football games because as well as they played in the second half against visiting Mendota, they were just as bad in the first half.

It resulted in a 28-20 nonconference setback as Central was unable to overcome a 21-0 halftime deficit despite the heroics of quarterback Mike Adams, who threw for one touchdown and ran for two others.

"We played two different halves," said Aurora Central coach Mike Curry. "The first half was just lousy, the second half was much better.

"We have a lot of juniors and they've got to be ready to play in quarter one and quarter two," Curry added. "By the time they were getting it going out there and they were ready to play, it was too late."

Mendota's base offense, with a wingback in motion, resulted in a bruising ground game that netted two first-quarter touchdowns for the Trojans.

Chris Knapp (24 carries, 85 yards) capped a 58-yard opening drive for Mendota with a 3-yard touchdown run, and Matt Songeroth stunned Central with an 85-yard scoring gallop on the first snap of Mendota's second possession.

The Trojans really had their hosts reeling when quarterback Jordan Fritz tossed a 25-yard scoring strike to Adam Gahan for the 21-0 lead.

With Central (0-1) snoozing through a first half with only one first down, 27 yards rushing and 4 yards passing, it appeared Mendota (1-0) might be on the way to a rout similar to last year's 43-26 pasting that opened last season on a sour note for the Chargers.

But Adams (13 of 20 for 169 yards) took over in the second half, igniting a Central comeback by racing 37 yards down the sideline for a score after a fake handoff in the third quarter. He also hit Matt Wagner with a 33-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter before tallying another touchdown on a 5-yard run.

In between, Fritz kept Mendota at a safe distance by taking off on his own 49-yard keeper for a critical fourth-quarter touchdown.

"The passing game is not too much of our offense, it's mostly just pounding it up the middle," Fritz said. "We were doing well in the first half, but then we just had stupid mistakes and fumbles in the second half."

Curry's team was the benefactor of Mendota cooling off in the second half.

"Mike Adams did a great job in the second half," Curry said. "I don't know what the problem was in the first half, as Mike looked kind of rusty."

Central's clean second half - no penalties, 16 first downs and 165 yards passing - was tarnished only by two interceptions as Adams was picked off on the first possession of the second half and then on a leaping pickoff by Songeroth in the end zone when a Central receiver was wide open in the corner early in the fourth quarter.

"It comes down to who makes the most mistakes and who makes the least mistakes," Curry said. "That's how it is in high school football."