DuPage County college football preview
Scouting reports: This could be the beginning of The Golden Age of DuPage County college football. Every one of the five football programs has either arrived as a solid conference competitor or appears to be headed in that direction.
North Central is going for its third straight College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin title, while Wheaton, which shared the championship with the Cardinals two years ago and won four straight titles before that, is looking to move back into place at the top of the standings. Both schools have received national attention in the preseason football publications.
Elmhurst fortunes have been on the rise the past few years and the Bluejays hope to improve and challenge the CCIW leaders under new coach Tim Lester. Benedictine finished third in the final season of Illini-Badger Football Conference play and enters the first year of the Northern Athletics Conference with a host of returning players on offense and an improving defense. College of DuPage was also named among the top programs nationally on a popular community college football Web site and looks to be a good bet to improve on last year's 6-4 mark.
North Central features the reigning CCIW Offensive Player of the Year, Aaron Fanthorpe, who passed for 2,043 yards and 23 touchdowns and ran for another 583 yards. Running back Dominic Sulo, a first-team all-CCIW choice rushed for more than 1,000 yards in each of the past two years. Delancy and Welnack the anchors of the offensive line, were both first-team all conference. The defense will be led by all-league pick Wenger, who led the team in tackles with 106.
"We have a lot of starters back, and several of them are guys who were our real superstars from last year," said coach John Thorne. "We should be faster than we've been overall, and we're definitely much stronger physically."
The Thunder, who are not used to looking up in the standings at anyone, return 16 starters and an all-time high 27 seniors, led by All-American Ittersagen.
Seven starters return to a defense that was 12th in the nation against the rush.
"Our players trained hard in the off-season," said coach Mike Swider. "And they're as focused as any group we've ever had."
After three straight seasons at 6-4, Elmhurst is looking to Lester to lead the team higher in the conference standings.
"We want to establish a program that can consistently challenge for a CCIW title," Lester said. "There is certainly a lot of work that goes into being successful in the CCIW, but I know that our players possess the talent to help our team reach the next level."
The Eagles are still a young team, but they're looking to take that next step from respectability to conference contenders.
"We have the chance to continue our program's growth and establish Benedictine football among the NAC's upper echelon from the get-go," said coach Jon Cooper. "We proved that we could play with the very best last year, and I'd like to see us set the pace in the NAC."
COD could be a dramatic success story this year. The Chaps have already started the season with a victory-last week's 31-19 win at Rock Valley and coach Fred Fimbres believes that this year's squad has a great deal of potential
DuPage features three defensive tackles and five linebackers who Fimbres believes are capable of playing Division I football.
"We think we'll be able to bring our defense in waves," Fimbres said.
Daniels, who takes over the quarterback spot, is an outstanding athlete with a powerful arm.
Top area athletes: Benedictine: Ryan Schwartz, tb, jr.; Quarandus Taylor, ol, jr.; Andrew Ramus, qb, so.; Brandin Austin, wr, so.; Joe Borsellino, wr, sr.; Patrick Daniels, db, jr.; Devin Montgomery, lb, jr.; Alex Dewey, lb, jr.; Kyle Schulz, dt, jr.; Dan Miller, dt, jr.; Matt Kunz, cb, sr. College of DuPage: Jon Daniels, qb, so.; Brian Thomas, dt, so, John Ryan lb, so.; Tim Cummins, lb, so.; Travis Saville, lb, so.; Darius Scott, dt, so. Zach Pridham, dt, so.; Alex Springhorn, lb, so.; Justin Hickman, lb, so. Elmhurst: Chris Kudyba, qb, sr.; Tyler Lomnicki, k, jr.; Ryan Gierke, wr, sr.; Blake Veldhuis, wr, sr.; Joe Stumpfoll, dl, jr.; Demetrios Vrettos, dl, jr.; Eric Puzon, lb, sr.; Dane Paul, db, so,; Ryan Keeton, db, sr. North Central: Aaron Fanthorpe, qb, jr.; Dominic Sulo, rb, jr.; Perry Welch, wr, sr.; Josh Delancy, ot, jr.; Wes Welnack, og, sr.; Matt Wenger, lb, jr.; Nick Swanson, s, sr.; Tyler Venier, cb, sr.; Derek Sulo, cb, jr.; Chris Kuhn, dt, jr.; Adam Pucylowski, p, sr.; Wheaton: Pete Ittersagen, cb, sr.; Tyler Langs, cb, jr.; Ben Kuenzle, de, sr.; Nick Theobald, dt, jr.; Mike McKinney, lb, sr.; Shane Woodward, s, sr.; Andrew Hershey, tb, sr; Alex Pokorny wr, sr.; Jesse Scott, ol, sr.; Sean Norris, qb, jr; Kyle Bradley, qb, sr.; Tim Ellingsen, pk, sr.
Key dates: Sept. 20: Harper at College of DuPage and North Central at Benedictine; Oct. 25: North Central at Wheaton; Nov. 1: Wheaton at Elmhurst; Nov. 15: North Central at Elmhurst.
- Neil Shalin