Waubonsie's miscues help Naperville C.

Football season openers are notorious for miscues - fumbles, penalties, etc.

First game or not, you commit 20 penalties and you put yourself in a tough spot.

Waubonsie Valley couldn't recover from those miscues while Naperville Central took advantage. After a halftime tie the Redhawks scored 17 straight second-half points and went on to win the nonconference game 24-14 at Dick Kerner Stadium in Aurora.

Naperville Central (1-0) wasn't flawless. The Redhawks fumbled a couple times, dropped a few passes and had three touchdowns called back on penalty.

But when 6-foot-4 receiver Riley O'Toole went up and over a Waubonsie Valley defensive back to grab Nick Linne's pass down the right sideline and ran in to make the score 7-7 on a 59-yard touchdown with 17 seconds left in the first half, it made up for a lot of things.

"That was big," said Naperville Central coach Mike Stine. "Instead of going in (to halftime) 7-0 we went in tight, 7-7. It gave us a little bit of momentum."

O'Toole caught 5 passes for 114 yards and had a 56-yard punt return called back.

"My (offensive) linemen, we couldn't do anything without them," he said of his big catch. "They made Linne have a lot of time, I just got open and then just caught the pass."

Waubonsie Valley (0-1) came out after halftime and immediately got backed up in its own territory when the kickoff bounced off the return man and went out at the 5-yard line.

After four of their 20 penalties, Mitch Ewald punted from his own end zone, with Naperville Central receiving the ball at the Waubonsie 34-yard line. Shortly thereafter Linne scored on a 6-yard bootleg behind left tackle Joe Widman for the Redhawks' first lead of the game.

Naperville Central got a 19-yard field goal by Jon Hutchinson to lead 17-7 at 9:49 of the fourth quarter, and after a defensive stop Kalen Petty returned a punt 71 yards for a touchdown to make the score 24-7.

Waubonsie Valley quarterback Tyler Castro, who completed 17 of 31 passes for 215 yards, drove the Warriors downfield to get within 24-14 on a 14-yard touchdown pass to Scott Keuhn with 4:06 left. The Warriors got the ball back with 3:41 left to play, but couldn't threaten.

"It's the first game," Castro said. "We've still got conference left, and that's big for us."