West Chicago has no answer for Batavia's attack
Four touchdown runs, three touchdown passes, a 90-yard kickoff return for another score, a successful fake punt, 53 points and 551 total yards.
And, believe it or not, all of that took place in the first half.
Senior quarterback Jordan Coffey topped the 300-yard passing mark, completing 21-of-31 attempts for 301 yards and 4 touchdowns, while wide receiver Erich Zeddies caught 9 passes for 180 yards and 4 TDs to help spark Batavia (1-1) to a 43-20 nonconference victory over visiting West Chicago (1-1) Friday night.
After falling behind 26-7 at halftime of last week's eventual 32-21 loss to St. Charles East, the Bulldogs scored both early and often, putting together touchdown drives on 5 of their first 6 opening-half possessions while building a 33-20 advantage at the intermission.
"Coming off last week, we wanted to score early and as much as possible to get them (the Wildcats) down because it's always hard to come from behind," said Zeddies, who had 7 receptions for 131 yards and 3 TDs in the first half.
Despite all of the lofty Bulldog aerial numbers, it was the ground game that helped account for the game's first score as Ryan Webb raced 37 yards for a TD to cap a 6-play, 90-yard drive on Batavia's opening possession.
After West Chicago knotted the score at 7-7 on Alex Pirela's 3-yard run late in the first quarter, the Bulldogs began their second-quarter assault when Coffey tossed a 13-yard TD pass to Zeddies, providing the home team with a lead they wouldn't relinquish.
Following a fumble recovery by senior defensive back Drew Dienslake, Kyle Duhig (9 carries, 63 yards), starting in place of injured senior tailback J.R. Kabba (knee), sprinted 18 yards for a touchdown to make it 19-7.
Just 11 seconds later, the Wildcats answered as Edward Miranda took the ensuing kick and burst up the middle for a 90-yard TD return to close the gap to 19-14.
Faced with a 4th-and-8 play near midfield, Batavia coach Mike Gaspari elected to go for it and the strategy paid off when Coffey connected with Zeddies on a 45-yard TD strike to make it 25-14.
Once again, the Wildcats struck with another big play just 21 seconds later as Chris Jackson (7 carries, 118 yards) took off on an electrifying 68-yard TD run to help the visitors pull within 25-20 with 1:37 left in the first half.
But the Coffey-to-Zeddies combination was simply too much for the Wildcats' defense, as the Batavia tandem hooked up on another fade pattern for a 12-yard TD pass with 24.7 seconds remaining before halftime to make it 33-20.
"They were playing up a little bit and playing inside," Zeddies said of the Wildcats' defensive backs. "I'd just fade to the corner constantly and Jordan (Coffey) was putting the ball there on the money every time. I just went up and got it."
The play turned out to a backbreaker of sorts for the Wildcats, who were kept off the scoreboard with just 3 first downs in the second half.
"If we could have just gone in (trailing) 25-20 at half, that would have given us some life in the second half," said West Chicago coach Hal Chiodo, whose team had blanked Evanston (13-0) in its season debut one week earlier.
"The pass is what we defended well last week but we could not stop the pass this week. They're a great football team and they're a classy outfit. We certainly didn't get beat by a poor football team. I'm certainly not happy to lose but I'm not ashamed of the way our guys played."