Naperville Central rallies for victory
If you knock down a champion, you'd better make sure you knock him out.
Naperville Central's football team taught that lesson to Brother Rice Friday night.
Rallying from a two-touchdown halftime deficit, the Redhawks pulled away to a 34-21 victory over visiting Brother Rice in their Class 8A first-round playoff game.
Fifth-seeded Naperville Central (8-2), the defending 8A champion, advances to the second round to face Saturday's winner between No. 8 Metea Valley (5-4) and No. 1 Waubonsie Valley (8-1).
The Redhawks will be on the road, but after Friday's stunning comeback they seem ready to play anyone anywhere.
"We went into halftime and coach (Mike) Stine reminded us that at half of the semifinal game last year we were down 21-7 (to Marist)," said Redhawks junior quarterback Conor Joyce, who completed 12 of 21 passes for 152 yards and 2 touchdowns while rushing for two more scores. "We knew we've been in this spot before, so we just realized we've got to do whatever we can to get seven more days with each other."
Naperville Central scored the final three times it had the ball while the defense allowed only one second-half first down until the Crusaders' second-to-last possession.
That also ended in a Redhawks touchdown. With Brother Rice facing fourth-and-23 after a Jonathan Barker sack, the snap sailed over quarterback Alex Alarcon's head. Naperville Central linebacker Bobby McMillen scooped up the ball and went 33 yards for the score that sealed the win at 34-21.
"I had complete faith in our team," McMillen said. "We realized that was only one half of football and there was so much football left to play in the game. We just had to come out in the second half and play the game we've played all season."
Fourth-seeded Brother Rice (6-4) dominated the first half, scoring on its first two possessions on runs by Alcaron, who completed 24 of 38 passes for 243 yards. Redhawks quarterback Conor Joyce threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Emmanuel Rugamba, but the Crusaders scored again to take a 21-7 lead to halftime.
After allowing 205 total yards the first half, the Redhawks gave up half that in the second half. Much of the yardage came with the Crusaders trying to rally in the final three minutes.
"To shut that offense out in the second half, that's a great job," Stine said. "That's a great offense, and our guys made plays."
Joyce started the second-half rally with a 36-yard third-quarter touchdown pass to Michael Kolzow. Spurred by tough runs by Kevin Clifford, who had 79 yards on 25 carries, Joyce scored on a pair of 1-yard runs. The second gave Naperville Central its first lead at 27-21 with 2:59 left.
Brother Rice drove to Naperville Central's 37 with a chance to retake the lead with a touchdown and extra point, but McMillen's scoop and score put an end to that and capped a 27-0 run by the Redhawks.
"We really went back in memory to last year, that Marist game," Stine said. "We said, 'We've been here before. We're going to be OK.' There was no sense of panic."
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