Naperville Centrals's defense hangs on in 25-17 victory

For all the turnovers caused by Naperville Central's defense, Saturday's football game against Waubonsie Valley came down to a couple of simple stops.

Or maybe not so simple.

The Redhawks twice held inside their own 30-yard line in the final five minutes to hang on for a 25-17 nonconference victory at Lisle's Benedictine University.

"Well, we kept everyone in their seats until the final second," said Redhawks coach Mike Stine. "Obviously the defense made some plays when they needed to."

Waubonsie Valley narrowed the gap on David Greenspan's 40-yard fumble return for a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter. The Warriors got the ball back two more times in hopes of scoring a touchdown and converting a 2-point play to tie it.

The first drive ended on downs at the Redhawks' 29. On the second possession, a 38-yard pass from Kenny Clay to Scott Kuehn put the ball at Naperville Central's 24 but the Warriors came no closer. As time expired Clay tossed an interception while being dragged down.

It was the sixth turnover forced by the Redhawks, who overcame three of their own. All but two by the Warriors occurred in Naperville Central territory.

One that didn't, however, was a Paul Wirtz interception in the flat that he returned 42 yards for a touchdown. That put the Redhawks ahead 25-10 with 11:40 left in the game - a margin that became critical after Greenspan's fumble return a few minutes later.

"Any time the defense can score is big for us," Wirtz said. "The coaches have preached to us all throughout the beginning of the season that the defense needs to make turnovers. It's good that we did that today."

The turnovers put a damper on what was a pretty productive day for Waubonsie Valley's offense. The Warriors outgained Naperville Central 348-216 in yardage including 140 rushing yards by Tre Clark and 129 passing yards by Kenny Clay.

"Naperville Central's a great team, and we had that game won," Clay said. "Really, we just shot ourselves in the foot. It wasn't talent-wise, it was mental mistakes. We just have to correct that this week and bounce back versus Oswego."

Naperville Central drove 80 yards in six minutes to start the game, scoring on Nick Linne's 3-yard pass to Pat Caulfield to open a 6-0 lead. After Clay scored on a 3-yard run to give Waubonsie Valley a 7-6 lead, the Redhawks' Tyler Bell returned the ensuing kick 99 yards for a touchdown.

Taking advantage of a pass interference call against the Warriors, Naperville Central scored right before halftime on Linne's 3-yard run to take an 18-7 lead to the break.

After picking up 13 first downs in the first half, the Redhawks managed only 5 in the second half. They also committed all three of their turnovers.

With the offense struggling, the defense made its stand.

"It was rough, as you would expect a first game to go," said Linne, who threw for 156 yards and ran for 39. "The first game is all about grinding through it and just staying together as a team."

Kuehn's 26-yard field goal accounted for the only third-quarter scoring and pulled Waubonsie Valley within 25-10.

"You just can't make the kind of mistakes we made against a Naperville Central type team and beat them," said Warriors coach Paul Murphy. "It's a lot of little things we can correct, and I'm encouraged."