WW South dominates out of the bye, blows out Joliet Catholic

What kind of team leader is AJ Rogers?

Well, after the junior quarterback had a perfect second half and finished the night with 258 yards and four touchdown passes, he couldn’t say enough good things about how his defense played in Friday’s 38-7 victory over Joliet Catholic in first-round action of the Class 6A playoffs.

Rogers was quick to credit the defense — and special teams — in the dominant performance as the Tigers blanked the Hilltoppers until a late score against the reserves prevented the shutout. This from a Joliet Catholic squad that won its playoff opener last week 44-3.

“We had to lean on our defense a little and they basically came out against a good team and got a goose egg,” said Rogers, who went 9-for-9 through the air in the second half including touchdown passes to Steven Harvey and Trent Simpson as the Tigers pulled away. “We had all three areas dominate today. Defense, offense and special teams.”

The 7-3 Tigers earned a bye last week and had plenty of time to prepare for Joliet Catholic (6-5). It paid off from the very start.

“We had two weeks to fully prepare and everyone was locked in,” Rogers said. “We knew we had this game.”

The defense made sure Wheaton Warrenville South had this game. First stuffing the run and then blanketing the Hilltoppers receivers when the visitors tried to go to the air. Linebacker Clark Jensen was all over the field making tackles and lineman Zach Turner recorded a key sack and had another tackle for loss.

“It felt pretty good that we shut down a good offense,” said Turner. “We knew we had to be strong against the run and when we stopped their run and made them pass, we knew we had this game. A lot of websites said we would lose this game. But we did what we do, win games.”

The game was bad for the visitors from the very first play and it didn’t get any better as the Tigers built a commanding 24-0 lead at the half.

On the opening kickoff — a medium-deep, high kick — no Hilltopper fielded the ball and after a mad scramble, the Tigers kicker Drew Maletich came away with the recovery at the Joliet Catholic 21-yard line. That set the stage for a six-yard touchdown pass from Rogers to tight end Jacob Bellows making it 7-0 less than three minutes into the game.

A 79-yard punt return by Blake Ittersagen made the score 14-0 after one quarter. The Tigers junior receiver/return man fielded the punt and initially headed to his left, before spinning around and racing to the right. Once inside Hilltopper territory he cut back into the middle and deeked his way past the final would-be tackler.

The Wheaton Warrenville South defense was dominant in the first half, allowing just one first down and forcing five punts while holding the Hilltoppers to 25 yards of total offense. One punt came after Turner’s sack had pinned the visitors deep in their own territory and ended up giving the Tigers the ball at the 37-yard line.

That short field turned into a 7-yard touchdown pass from Rogers to Harvey for a 21-0 lead. A 23-yard field goal by Maletich upped the margin to 24-0 and the big first half had the hosts well on their way to advancing to to round two. Harvey finished with four catches for 38 yards and two scores, while Keenan Yarbrough added three catches for 86 yards for the Tigers.

“Those are big momentum plays,” Tigers coach Sean Norris said of the two big plays on special teams that led to two quick scores. “We turned that kickoff (recovery) into points and obviously the punt return was turned into points. I’m proud of the win and proud of how these guys believed.”