Warren impresses on both sides of the ball in first round victory

Warren played an all-around team game, scoring five touchdowns and forcing three turnovers on its way to a 35-7 first-round victory over New Trier in the 8A bracket in Gurnee on Saturday.

The perennial state playoff contenders look poised to make another deep run into November.

“We’ve always been known as the quarterfinal team,” said standout running back Aaron Stewart. “We knew we were gonna to come out here and win this game.”

“Just looking to keep pushing, make it to a state championship, win a state championship,” added Stewart.

Coach Bryan McNulty knows those lofty goals will take a focused team effort to achieve.

“It's going to be on us,” said McNulty. “We’ll see some good football teams coming up.”

Blue Devils defender Chris McBride got his opportunistic squad started in this one with a fumble recovery in the first quarter to set up a 42-yard scoring run for Simon Castillo on an end around to make it 7-0 Warren.

On the next possession, the Blue Devils defense turned up the intensity as Warren linebacker Jaden Wright read New Trier quarterback John Ryder’s eyes, and they led him directly to the ball.

Wright closed on the intended receiver, took the ball away, and gave his team first and goal from the 8-yard line with a chance to go up two scores early.

“It's a focus of ours,” said McNulty. “We try to take the football away. We play hard and we swarm to the ball. We just feel like when we do that, good things are going to happen. So that's really the biggest thing, is just getting as many hats to the ball as we can.”

Blue Devils quarterback Reed Dangel immediately found wide receiver Kentrell Lear for a 6-yard touchdown to give Warren massive amounts of momentum early, keeping the home crowd engaged in the action.

“We don't get too many home games to the playoffs normally,” said Stewart.

Stewart went over 2,500 yards on the season as he ran for two of the Blue Devils touchdowns, including a 74-yard dagger to make it 35-0 late in the third.

“It's really a team sport at the end of the day,” said Stewart. “Like, I'm glad I'm doing what I need to do, but my teammates are still helping me out. It's not all on me, realistically.”

The New Trier defense pulled out all the stops in an effort to slow Stewart down. They frequently dug in up front, with Trevian linemen crawling through the line of scrimmage to create a pile of chaos that the Blue Devils had to push through.

“I can't lie, they was doing a great job on the run defense,” said Stewart. “I didn't see much early in the game. O-Line was doing what they can do. I was trying to do what I could do, but slowly but surely we worked them down.”

Stewart broke through for his first touchdown of the night on a 15-yard carry with under a minute to play in the opening half to make it 21-0 Warren.

In an attempt to claw some points back before the intermission, Ryder looked downfield on the last New Trier offense drive before halftime; however, when he chucked a 40-yard pass into the air it was Warren’s Zion Vines-Peterson who came down with it.

He took it 40 yards to the endzone to break things open and score his first varsity touchdown.

“We've been working on that play all week,” said a smiling Vines-Peterson. “It's like a pick route. I see the wheel. I just stayed disciplined in the number two, and I just see the ball in the air and I cut, and took it to the crib.”

His play gave his team a four-touchdown lead heading into the locker room.

Stewart added his 74-yard sprint with four minutes to play in the third quarter and New Trier could not respond until the closing minutes.

Warren (9-1) hosts 8-2 Bolingbrook in the second round.