Central prevents comeback on last play

Redhawks, Warriors combine for nine turnovers

LISLE — It's impossible to draw any big conclusions off an opener this wild, except that Naperville Central-Waubonsie Valley would make a highly entertaining playoff rematch.

Central hung on for a 25-17 win that wasn't decided until the last play on Saturday in Lisle. The Warriors drove down to Central's 24-yard line in the final minute and had one-tenth of a second left for a Hail Mary toss.

Cam Brate broke through and sacked Waubonsie quarterback Kenny Clay to the turf, ending the threat and a game that saw nine combined turnovers, defensive touchdowns scored by both teams in the fourth quarter and a 100-yard kick return from Central's Tyler Bell.

"You just can't make the kind of mistakes we made against a Naperville Central-type team and beat them," Waubonsie coach Paul Murphy said afterward. "You just got to execute when you're under pressure. And when you haven't played a lot of varsity games — JV games (are) not the same speed as varsity — (you) got to get baptism under fire.

"Kenny Clay is gonna be fine. We're all gonna be fine. They got to understand what it takes to play against good football teams for 48 minutes. We never quit (and) we had a chance.

"You don't take a sack there (at the end). You got to throw it up and hope for a miracle. ... It's a lot of little things that we can correct."

That was the major theme coming out of both sides. The pivotal moment came with Central blitzing early in the fourth quarter. Defensive back Paul Wirtz read the quarterback and jumped a bubble route in the flats. He returned the interception 44 yards for a touchdown and the Redhawks led 25-10 with 11:40 remaining.

"Any time the defense can score is big for us," Wirtz said. "Coaches have preached to us throughout the beginning of the season that the defense needs to make turnovers."

Of course — with the way this game went — Waubonsie linebacker David Greenspan next picked up a backward swing pass and returned the fumble for a touchdown. Central's lead was cut to 25-17 with 7:28 left.

But Central's spread offense was efficient enough on Saturday at Benedictine. Senior quarterback Nick Linne finished 19 of 33 for 156 yards. He threw for a touchdown and ran for another.

"Compared to last year, we look so much better," Central tight end Brate said of an offense that had six players with at least one catch. "Everything was in sync out there today."

Central's defense was on its heels for most of the first half, but Waubonsie turnovers killed two promising drives deep in Redhawks territory. First James O'Connor recovered a Clay fumble around the 16-yard line. Then later in the second quarter defensive end Alex Schaefer caused another fumble by tight end Mark Szott, which was recovered by Brate at the 28.

Overall Waubonsie (0-1) rushed for 227 yards, with senior running back Tre Clark (146) leading the way. Clay went 15 of 28 for 139 yards and two interceptions.

"There were a lot of mistakes by both teams. First game, you're gonna have that," Central coach Mike Stine said. "We found a way to win. We were lucky today."

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