O'Toole near perfect as WW South tops Wheaton North
On a night when Wheaton Warrenville South honored its latest class of Hall of Fame inductees, Tigers quarterback Reilly O'Toole provided the ultimate tribute.
He put in a Hall of Fame performance.
A near-perfect passing effort by the University of Illinois-bound senior led WW South to Friday's 42-14 DuPage Valley Conference victory over visiting cross-town rival Wheaton North.
O'Toole completed 14 of 15 passes for 291 yards and touchdowns of 15, 23, 15 and 57 yards.
"It's pretty easy when our receivers are open," O'Toole said. "They run great routes. They're all great receivers. Just getting them the ball is my job."
Wheaton North (4-2, 2-2) took a 7-0 first-quarter lead before the Tigers (6-0, 4-0) scored 35 straight points to seal their eighth straight cross-town win.
Falcons quarterback Reece Butler completed 25 of 37 passes for 186 yards, a 2-yard fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Richard Finley and 3 interceptions.
After taking a 14-7 lead at the half, WW South seized command by adding 14 points in the third quarter.
Wheaton North controlled nearly 10 minutes of the first quarter, highlighted by a 14-play, 64-yard drive that ended on Matt Sambo's 3-yard scoring run.
"We did a good job in the first half, and on tape it seems like a lot of teams did a good job against them in the first half," said Falcons coach Joe Wardynski. "They make good adjustments in the second half. They find what you're doing and they out-scheme you."
WW South's defense took control in the second quarter with R.J. Hoshell's red-zone interception and a pair of sacks by Will Davis, who had 3 on the night. The half ended when the Tigers successfully defended a fake field-goal attempt by batting down a pass in the end zone.
"Our defense makes a lot of adjustments," Davis said. "That's been the trend for this year. We come out in the first quarter and don't play as well as we should. But the coaches make the adjustments and we start playing well."
Titus Davis, who had 7 catches for 137 yards, Jason Schuman, Ryan Crowe and Dan Vitale each caught touchdown passes from O'Toole. Matt Rogers, who rushed for 80 yards on 13 carries, accounted for the other two scores with runs of 7 and 2 yards.
Jack Eshleman snared one of WW South's interceptions, but he was lost in the first quarter to an arm injury and went for X-rays, according to Tigers coach Ron Muhitch.
"We've got a lot of weapons and we're tough to stop," Muhitch said. "But we're starting to get a little beat up. Jack's a tough loss for us."