WW South wins one for the road
BELLEVILLE, Ill. -- Wheaton Warrenville South's football team didn't drive all this way for nothing.
Feeling no ill effects from the longest road trip in program history, quarterback Reilly O'Toole threw for a career-high 376 yards and the Tigers rolled through the Class 7A semifinals with a 41-7 win at Belleville East.
WW South (13-0) advances to its 10th state title game in search of its seventh championship. A win over Lake Zurich in next Saturday's 7A final in Champaign would mark the second time the Tigers have won back-to-back titles, the first repeat happening in 1995 and 1996.
Interestingly, Lake Zurich beat WW South 7-3 in the 2007 7A final to deny the Tigers a repeat.
“We had a five-hour bus ride, so coach (Ron Muhitch) has been saying all week that we had to get off to a good start and start focusing on the bus ride,” O'Toole said. “We did a real good job stepping up offensively and the defense did a great job stopping all those athletes they have over there. Just a total team effort.”
It started with a career day for O'Toole, who completed 22 of 28 passes with 3 touchdowns. He also threw his second interception of the season to break a streak of 10 straight games without a pick.
Eight players caught passes for the Tigers led by Titus Davis, who had 8 grabs for 176 yards and touchdowns of 58 yards and 1 yard. WW South piled up 565 total yards, including 105 rushing yards and a 36-yard touchdown from Matt Rogers and a 25-yard scoring run from O'Toole.
“Everyone came out and played a big game,” said Davis, who had a 77-yard punt return for a touchdown called back because of a penalty. “They put eight guys in the box and they play man, so we knew we'd have a big day passing against them.”
The one downer came on the injury front. According to Muhitch, receiver Travis Kern broke his collarbone and defensive lineman Will Davis injured his ribs in the first half and didn't return.
“Those are big losses for us,” Muhitch said. “I'm real worried about Travis' injury, first of all. And hopefully Will's ribs aren't that bad.”
Rogers opened the scoring with his first-quarter touchdown run, and the Tigers piled on 3 second-quarter touchdowns to seize a 28-0 lead. Belleville East, which gained 204 of its 215 yards on the ground, scored its lone touchdown on an 8-yard Kevin Gettis third-quarter run after the Lancers (10-3) took over the ball at the Tigers' 30 following a fumble.
O'Toole added an 18-yard fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Lucas Devick, and backup quarterback Ryan Crowe capped the scoring with a 24-yard touchdown run. Casey Armbrust snared an interception to account for one of three turnovers forced by the Tigers.
“We were excited to come out here, we knew it was a long trip, but we were looking forward to it,” Armbrust said. “Next week's going to be great in Champaign. We're all looking forward to it.”