Naperville C. returns to winning ways
West Chicago may have been ready to put up a good fight Friday night, but visiting Naperville Central was sick and tired of its little two-game losing streak.
After seeing their 4-0 start turn into a 4-2 record with back-to-back losses to conference powers Wheaton Warrenville South and Naperville North, the Redhawks pushed around the Wildcats for 3 touchdowns in the first quarter en route to a 34-6 halftime lead. West Chicago (1-6, 0-5) fought hard all night before dropping its homecoming contest 41-20 but was done on by its inability to stop the visitors' running game.
Nick Kukuc had a pair of 1-yard TD runs in the first quarter before adding a 67-yard scoring run in the second quarter for the Redhawks. Russell Petty, meanwhile, ran for 68 yards on his first carry and finished the night with 143 yards on just 7 carries.
"We just planned on coming out strong offensively and grind it up the middle, and we succeeded," said Kukuc, who recorded his first 3-TD game since his first varsity game back in 2007. "The offensive line did a great job, and we had all 11 players on the same page."
West Chicago, which lost running back Chris Jackson to a broken ankle last week, found itself down 20-0 less than eight minutes into the game after Naperville Central quarterback Nick Linne hooked up with Riley O'Toole for a 49-yard scoring pass. Linne later tossed a 42-yard TD to Cameron Brate, but the Redhawks did most of their damage while rushing for close to 300 yards.
"We did a pretty good job on offense," O'Toole said after the Redhawks amassed 273 yards of total offense in the first half. "Petty and Kukuc both ran great. It's nice to have everyone back, and with Petty we have another weapon."
Naperville Central coach Mike Stine thinks his squad may have learned a thing or two during the two straight losses. Friday he may have learned a little about Petty, a speedy track high jumper who missed the first five weeks due to injury.
"With having played Wheaton South and Naperville North back to back, the speed of the game is so much faster and there's the intensity," Stine said. "I think some of our guys grew up some."
Petty, a state-title contender in the high jump, set up the game's first score when he raced 68 yards down to the 1 on the first play from scrimmage. He later had runs of 20, 32 and 18 yards while averaging better than 20 yards a pop for the game.
"He's a great athlete," Stine said. "Russell became a little more of a football player tonight. We already knew he was a track star."
The Wildcats battled until the end, with Nick Henke catching 7 passes from AJ Romanelli for 71 yards, and Alex Pirella scoring 3 TDs, two on the ground and one on a 12-yard pass from Romanelli.
"Even though we've been getting thumped, I feel like the kids have been fighting all year long," Wildcats coach Hal Chiodo said. "But at halftime I told them I was a little disappointed about the (lack of) fire we came out with. I thought in the second half we came back out and played as hard as we could."