Naperville Central 17, Glenbard East 0

The Naperville Central football team came into its regular season finale knowing it already had earned a playoff spot.

Not that the Redhawks were satisfied. They wanted to improve their seed, and they likely did that by beating Glenbard East 17-0 in a DuPage Valley Conference game Friday night at Memorial Stadium in Naperville.

"We wanted a higher seeding so we don't have to play an 8-1 team or a 9-0 in the first round," said Naperville Central quarterback Harrison Daniels, who ran for a touchdown and threw for another one. "With the win we'll probably play another high 6-3 or a low 7-2, so that's always good. It'll be a little easier hopefully first-round game."

Naperville Central (6-3, 5-2) scored all of its points in the first half.

The Redhawks took the lead on their first drive, moving 58 yards on 7 plays with Daniels scoring on a 3-yard keeper around the right end.

Naperville Central put together a 7-play, 65-yard drive in the second quarter, scoring on a 3-yard touchdown pass from Daniels to wide-open tight end John Holm.

An interception by Naperville Central's Dan Erwin gave the home team the ball on Glenbard East's 33 with 47 seconds left in the first half. Mark Giuliani booted a 24-yard field with 1 second remaining to give the Redhawks their 17-0 lead.

The Redhawks held Glenbard East (1-8, 0-7) to 85 yards rushing and 72 passing in posting their first shutout.

Naperville Central didn't have its most productive game offensively, but outgained the Rams 221 to 157 yards.

"We were hoping for maybe a total game tonight," Redhawks coach Mike Stine said. "We didn't get the total game. Offensively we were not as sharp tonight as we were a week ago, but defensively we played extremely well. Hopefully next week we get offense and defense together."

Glenbard East coach Dennis Lueck liked his team's effort.

"We played hard and I thought we played probably our best defensive game," Lueck said.

Rams quarterback Jack Merrithey suffered a thumb injury in the second half and threw just 2 passes in the final two quarters.

"It really limited us to what we could do offensively in the second half, but I give him a lot of credit for gutting it out," Lueck said. "He could have pulled himself out."