WW South opens it up, rolls over Naperville North
Three plays, two touchdowns. No breathing.
After a wild opening minute, Wheaton Warrenville South's football team ultimately found plenty of room to exhale by midway through the third quarter.
The Tigers closed the game with 28 straight points and rolled to a 41-13 DuPage Valley Conference victory over visiting Naperville North on Friday.
Flashing near perfect balance, quarterback Reilly O'Toole completed 11 of 19 passes for 228 yards and 3 touchdowns while running back Matt Rogers carried the ball 17 times for 162 yards and 3 touchdowns.
"It's a great win for us," Rogers said. "It was a team effort. I wouldn't have been able to do it without my offensive line, and without Reilly opening it up with the passing game."
WW South's defense, meanwhile, clamped down starting near the end of the first half.
Huskies quarterback Matt LaCosse tied the game at 13-13 with a 1-yard run about five minutes before halftime to cap a 12-play, 70-yard drive. After that, though, Naperville North (3-2, 1-2) never returned to the red zone.
"We're a good football team, we just didn't have enough tonight for them," said Naperville North coach Sean Drendel. "Unfortunately in the second half we just didn't get the ball back. Physically, I thought we played very well tonight and we played hard."
LaCosse, who rushed for 119 yards and 2 touchdowns, opened the scoring with a 77-yard touchdown run on the game's second play. WW South (5-0, 3-0) responded on its first play from scrimmage with a 64-yard touchdown pass from O'Toole to Travis Kern.
WW South took a 13-7 lead on a 6-yard touchdown pass from O'Toole to Titus Davis, who had 4 catches for 86 yards. The Tigers extended the lead to 20-13 lead late in the first half on a 3-yard run by Rogers.
The Tigers got the ball back with 1:40 left in the half and O'Toole moved the team 80 yards in 7 plays. He capped the no-huddle drive with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Crowe to put WW South ahead 27-13 at the break.
Receiving the ball out of halftime, the Tigers ran 11 plays while again going 80 yards. Rogers, who ran 7 of the plays for 56 yards, capped the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run to put the lead at 34-13.
WW South's defense took over from there by allowing only 28 second-half yards. Rogers scored his final touchdown on a 9-yard run early in the fourth quarter.
"We're a great halftime team and we always learn from our mistakes," said Tigers defensive lineman Sparty Chino. "We always come back a lot stronger in the second half, and that's what we did tonight."