Everything goes wrong for West Aurora

Naperville Central's stranglehold on the West Aurora series remains as secure as quarterback Nick Linne's grip on a football in adverse conditions.

Despite playing on a sloppy, rain-soaked field on a night West Aurora lost four fumbles, Linne managed the game perfectly in the Redhawks' spread attack, throwing three first-half touchdowns in their 41-2 rout.

Six-foot-4 wide receiver Riley O'Toole hauled in all three of Linne's touchdown tosses. Linne completed 10 of 15 passes, all in the first half, and also led the Redhawks in rushing with 43 yards.

"He was real well composed back there," O'Toole said. "He was just delivering the ball with accuracy."

Naperville Central (3-0, 1-0) did fumble six times but recovered every one. The Redhawks also pounced on all four of West Aurora's fumbles, including a pair of defensive scores in the second half by Mike Kraft and Jeremy Pomeroy.

"Nick made some good reads and Riley had some good catches," said Redhawks coach Mike Stine, who smiled while crediting assistant coach Andy Nussbaum's sons for keeping a dry ball in the game. "There aren't many corners that can cover Riley one-on-one."

Entering DVC play at 2-0, West Aurora hoped this was finally the year it could clear the Naperville Central hurdle. Instead, the Blackhawks saw everything go wrong, with the Redhawks enjoying a running clock the final 20 minutes and improving to 12-0 against West Aurora since the Blackhawks joined the DVC.

"We didn't do anything," Blackhawks coach Buck Drach said. "Absolutely nothing the entire night. And when you do nothing the entire night, you get your butt beat 41-2. That's what happens. They are a good football team, they aren't that good."

The Blackhawks (2-1, 0-1) only ran four plays in the first quarter. Naperville Central's 16-play, 95-yard drive culminated in a 12-yard touchdown pass to O'Toole, who used his height advantage against West Aurora's 5-4 Josh Zinzer, a returning all-DVC selection and an all-state wrestler and track star.

"Everything was flowing real good," O'Toole said. "They are great corners, they are fast and quick, but I used my (advantage) on the jump ball."

West Aurora didn't get its first first down until 5:40 remained in the third quarter, and that came on a 15-yard face mask penalty. The Blackhawks finished with 2 first downs and 3 yards of offense.

Naperville Central did a good job kicking away from Markus Cocroft, who returned 2 kicks for scores last week but didn't touch the ball until late in the second half. The busiest player for West Aurora was punter Kevin Costin, who averaged nearly 38 yards on his 6 kicks.

"Thirty-five years I haven't had anything like this," Drach said. "Absolutely no execution by nobody."