Aurora Christian blanks DuSable

Aurora Christian has a much different roster than last year's team that made it all the way to the Class 4A state title game. The Eagles know that and they also know that some people think those losses might be too much to overcome for a team that also is making the switch to the highly competitive Suburban Christian Conference.

"I love the fact that nobody thinks we can win and I have read every article to them that says that, so thank you, keep saying that, please,' said Eagles coach Don Beebe. "We have used that as motivation to go from a team that played in a state championship to a team that people are saying won't make the playoffs because we're in a new conference and we wanted to come out and make a statement, especially defensively."

The statement was loud and clear as Aurora Christian not only shut out DuSable on its way to a 47-0 victory, they held the Panthers to negative-57 yards from scrimmage in the game. The Eagles defense recorded 19 plays that they held DuSable to negative or zero yards on the play.

"I was pleased with our discipline and even when they had a good play, we closed it down, our speed was fantastic," said Eagles defensive coordinator Dave Beebe. "That's going to be our forte this year, our speed. I'm also pleased that we got up in the game and then I thought we did a good job of maintaining our focus and execution."

Offensively, running back Donald Patterson did the bulk of the work as he ran for a game-high 92 yards and scored two TDs. Sophomore quarterback Grayson Roberts began the tall order of following in the footsteps of his brother, Jordan, who graduated last year as the IHSA's all-time leader in just about every statistical category. Roberts showed he was up to the challenge with two first-quarter TD passes to Matthew Luckman and later he connected with Dan Earwood for a 63-yard TD that put the running clock into effect.

"We were excited to play and our defense did a phenomenal job," said Roberts. "It was great to watch them and then the offensive line did an incredible job, I was getting so much time. We all worked so hard in the off-season and it is slowly paying off."