Scouting Aurora Central @ Immaculate Conception
Aurora Central (1-6)> at Immaculate Conception (2-5)
Game time 1 p.m. Saturday, Elmhurst College.
Last year Immaculate Conception 35, Aurora Central 7.
Last week Montini 41, Aurora Central 10; Wheaton Academy 35, Immaculate Conception 15.
Outlook With the defending Class 2A champion ousted from the playoffs last week by Wheaton Academy, this game becomes a matter of pride. ACC coach Mike Curry sounds just the same in Week 8 as he did in Week 3. "I've been pretty happy with our running of the ball, we've done a decent job of that," he said. "It's the other things that make up the game that we need to do a better job of, passing and defense. The biggest thing, and I keep harping on it, but we've got to take better care of the ball." Montini, which possesses a fast and heady secondary, picked off the Chargers four times last week and averaged 10.3 yards a play on offense. Those numbers sabotaged a very good Chargers ground game, headed again by Alex Schaefer and Andrew Scott, that gained 256 yards. Schaefer has run for 606 yards on 92 carries, an average of 6.6 yards per carry. Curry also praised two-way linemen Tyler Scott and John Belovich and senior defensive lineman Robert Reier, whose 52 tackles rank third on the team behind Tyler Scott (64) and Andrew Scott (55). With both teams out of the money, this could actually be a good opportunity for junior quarterback Steward DeWaard to continue his development reading defenses and routes. Immaculate Conception will pressure him on the blitz, and does have a solid secondary. The Knights, big upfront like ACC, also have one of the league's best quarterbacks in Will Cronin, and a nice running back in Conor Hendricks. Cronin threw for 419 yards in an early season rally against St. Edward, to receivers Kyle Siranovic and Stephen Maloney, and he's got a nice tight end in Austin Hennessey. But IC coach Mike Alberts would be content to run the ball all day if he could. "We have to play better defense, face it," Curry said. "If we don't do that, all the rest of this stuff's academic."
Next week St. Francis (5-2, 1-2) at Aurora Central, Oct. 23; Chicago Christian (4-3, 2-2) at Immaculate Conception, Oct. 24.