West Aurora throttles rival East Aurora
They have five combined football playoff appearances the last three decades, but the cultural and historical underpinning of the East Aurora-West Aurora rivalry cannot be overstated.
Thousands of fans packed Ken Zimmerfield Field at West High on Friday night in the teams' opener, though the notorious fences that once separated the schools' students in the 1970s is a thing of the past.
"It's the best rivalry in the state," said West Aurora junior Curtis Townsend, one of three quarterbacks coach Buck Drach employed in the Blackhawks' 52-12 victory. "Seeing the generation of fans who played in the game in the past and continue to come to see that one game is special. We make (East Aurora) better, and they make us better."
The schools' initial football encounter (1893) was the first high school athletic contest in state history.
But as has been the case for the past decade, it was all West Aurora (1-0) against the visiting Tomcats (0-1).
Holding their archrivals to 12 first-half yards of offense and striking behind its interchangeable series of athletic running backs, the Blackhawks utilized a short field the entire game to dominate the 118th edition of the fifth-longest continuous rivalry in the nation.
"Poor field position, mental mistakes," lamented East Aurora coach Bill Bryant. "You can't win football games playing on your side of the field the entire night."
With the exception of a 70-yard Tyson Lassiter jaunt late in the first half and Jonathan Gosong romping 90 yards on a kickoff return to close out the running-clock game, West Aurora had its other six scoring drives begin in East Aurora territory.
West Aurora starting tailback Marcus Waller ended the Blackhawks' first two drives with scores from 26 and 5 yards, respectively.
"It's more fun than anything else," said Waller, who ended with 76 yards on 9 carries and 3 touchdowns, on playing East Aurora. "I have to thank Cole (Childs) for his block on the first one and Tyson for his block (on his last touchdown from 25 yards out in the third quarter)."
Terrence Pierce was the Blackhawks defensive linchpin; the smallish end had 3 sacks in the new look West Aurora defense.
"We changed our defense," Drach said. "We're trying to utilize our athletes."
The Blackhawks forced five turnovers on defense, and special teams accounted for a sixth East Aurora miscue.
West Aurora also received a second touchdown from Lassiter, a 40-yard gallop by Booker Ross and a 26-yard reception by Preston Felker.
"It was very exciting getting my first varsity touchdown," said Ross, a sophomore.
Michael Thomas' game-high 120 yards rushing including scoring jaunts of 54 and 22 yards for East Aurora.