Upstart Kewanee next for Aurora Christian
Aurora Christian coach Don Beebe knows determination when he sees it.
In the top-seeded Eagles’ first-round Class 3A playoff game, 3 p.m. Saturday, his squad hosts the quadrant’s No. 8 seed, the Kewanee Boilermakers.
Out of the Big Rivers Conference, Kewanee (5-4) snapped a 31-game losing streak on the opening day of 2010. This season, under third-year coach Chris Waca, the Boilermakers made the playoffs for the first time since 1999, breaking a three-game losing streak with a 31-15 Week 9 victory over playoff-bound Riverdale.
Beebe points to Kewanee’s 33-19 halftime lead over 8-1 Morrison (turnovers doomed Kewanee to a 54-33 loss) and a narrow 21-14 loss to 2010 2A champion Sterling-Newman as proof that this team can play.
“What it shows is they have really great capabilities of winning football,” Beebe said.
“This team is a very good 5-4 team. Most times when you play an eighth seed you think you’re going to win, but this game makes me nervous.”
His main anxiety is 5-foot-10, 185-pound running back Dontae Pryor, who has the athleticism to be a three-time all-state long jumper and sprinter at the state 1A track finals. According to the Kewanee Star Courier, Pryor recently became Kewanee’s all-time leading rusher — for a program whose football history dates to 1897 — with more than 2,500 yards. He’s at 800 yards rushing this season with a pair of 200-yard games.
“He is the best pure running back we have faced all season, no question about it,” Beebe said.
Also, the Boilermakers feature a good-sized receiver, 6-foot-2 Alfaye Taylor, who Beebe compares to Aurora Christian’s own tall downfield target, Cory Windle. Jake Scott is Kewanee’s quarterback, among the Boilermakers’ many senior two- and three-year starters.
The thrust, though, will be to contain Pryor.
“The thing about kids like this with so much speed is you’ve got to keep him between the tackles, you can’t let him get outside,” Beebe said.
While that task will fall to Aurora Christian defenders like Roman Czerwinski, Mitch Holtz and heavy hitter Kenny McCracken, the Eagles’ leading tackler with 77 and 11 tackles for loss, Aurora Christian (8-1) poses an obvious chore for Kewanee’s 5-2 defense.
The Eagles have scored on 15 of their last 16 offensive drives. Quarterback Anthony Maddie is now up to 37 touchdown passes, completing 146 of 246 passes for 2,533 yards. What’s more, he’s rushed for 523 yards, just 3 less than team leader Brandon Mayes’ 526 yards.
“This is as good as we’ve played as an offensive unit. I think that’s big going into the playoffs,” Beebe said.
“We are encouraged by that, but knowing full well it’s one-and-done and there’s no tomorrow. All those are clichés, but they come true. You’ve got to play like this is your last game.”