Whitwell powers Batavia over Glenbard West in marquee matchup

Batavia coach Dennis Piron is not one to typically lean on one running back to carry the load.

Nathan Whitwell, though, is the exception to that rule.

“He’s an ironman,” Piron said. “His fitness level is the best in the school, he’s the king of the combine, he’s a state sprinter, he can long jump farther than anybody, high jump. He is a flat out stud.”

The Bulldogs put Whitwell’s exceptional physical conditioning to maximum use on Saturday. Batavia’s senior running back rushed for 179 yards and three touchdowns on 35 carries. Its defense twice turned away Glenbard West drives for the tie in the fourth quarter to hold on for a 35-28 win at Duchon Field.

Whitwell, one of four Batavia backs with at least 400 yards rushing last season, was not completely caught off guard by his busy afternoon. Batavia graduated its top three rushers from a Class 7A semifinalist. The Bulldogs on Saturday were breaking in a new quarterback, junior Bodi Anderson, and most of a new offensive line.

Only four Batavia skill-position players touched the ball in the first half Saturday, Whitwell the most prominent with 20 carries. His 35 carries accounted for close to two-thirds of Batavia’s total plays.

“Coach said I’d get the ball out here a lot, but I didn’t expect it to be that many times,” Whitwell said. “I had to react to the situation as I went. End of half, I was pretty gassed. Over halftime, just trying to catch my breath from all those carries.”

Whitwell, a state-level 400-meter sprinter, showcased that speed on the game’s first score. He bounced a carry outside and outraced the defense for a 52-yard touchdown run down the left sideline with 4:55 left in the first quarter. Whitwell added a 3-yard TD in the second quarter, and his third, from 24 yards out, gave Batavia a 35-21 lead with 3:02 left in the third quarter.

“Nobody will be surprised about him any more,” Piron said. “I’m going to tell you, you didn’t see what he can do. He has top-end speed and power. You think you got a run at him and he’s gone.”

Did Whitwell think he surprised Glenbard West with that speed?

“I’m not sure if they expected that, you’d have to ask them,” Whitwell said with a laugh. “I ran track all spring, in the weight room almost every single day, pushing myself to the max limit.”

Batavia never trailed in the matchup between west suburban powers, four times holding two-touchdown leads with an advantage that swelled to 28-7 late in the second quarter on defensive lineman Xavier Blanquel’s fumble return for a touchdown.

Glenbard West closed to within 35-28 with 7:28 left on Teyion Oriental’s 8-yard TD run out of the wildcat formation. The Hilltoppers twice had subsequent possessions for the tie start in Batavia territory, the first after Val Jones recovered a Whitwell fumble off a muffed exchange with Anderson and the second when Glenbard West stuffed Whitwell on fourth-and-short.

But each time Batavia’s defense held.

Batavia’s Jake Feller had sacks on each of the last two drives, and Blanquel dropped Oriental on fourth-and-6 on the second-to-last possession.

“That definitely put us in a big spot,” Blanquel said. “I don’t even remember the play, I just remember being put on top of him [Oriental], celebrating with my teammates.”

Oriental had two TD runs for Glenbard West and returned a kickoff 87 yards for a third TD, the Hilltoppers’ first score of the game. But he did not return to the field for Glenbard West’s last drive with an apparent hand injury on the fourth-down hit.

The Hilltoppers turned it over three times, two leading to Batavia points – the first on a muffed punt return, and also gave the ball up on an onside kick. Batavia junior Andrew Culotta recovered both.

Too big a hill to climb against Batavia.

The programs were meeting for the first time in head coaching careers of Piron and Glenbard West’s Chad Hetlet spanning close to 30 years combined.

“We dug our own hole and Batavia capitalized on it,” Hetlet said. “They’re a program similar to us. Dennis and I are really good friends. For a long time we always wanted this matchup as we get closer to the end of our careers. It was super cool, a great game between good programs. Those mistakes are hard to overcome, but our kids battled back.”

Oriental managed only 56 yards rushing on 19 carries and sophomore QB Oliver Valdez was 11-for-20 passing for 133 yards for Glenbard West, which faces a gauntlet of a schedule ahead. The Hilltoppers host defending Class 8A champ Loyola next Saturday, then open conference play at defending Class 7A runner-up Downers Grove North.

“Those are things we’re going to need to fix,” Hetlet said. “They did a good job defensively keeping us away from big drives and establishing our running game. We never could get it going.”

Anderson was 8-for-15 passing for 82 yards, Isaiah Brown catching four of those passes, and Anderson also had a TD run for Batavia.