Waubonise Valley well-positioned for postseason

Waubonsie Valley’s Paul Murphy is like most high school football coaches. Going into the season you can ask him his overall team goals and his response will be something like, “They don’t ever change. We want to win conference, make the playoffs and go as far as we can.”

Entering this past Friday’s game against Metea Valley, Murphy noted the Warriors’ three wins were “halfway there” to the 6 victories that lock up a playoff berth. After the Warriors’ 51-0 win — “I was thinking 21-, 28-0,” Murphy said afterward — he repeated statements he made to his team.

“Next week you’ve got a chance at five (wins), and then you’ve got the big boys coming up, Neuqua Valley and South Elgin, at the end,” Murphy told reporters on the field at Metea Valley.

“Sandwiched in between is (winless) East Aurora, but we’ve got to take care of business now because that last third of the season we’ve got two big games down there that we’ve got to be in shape for.”

Waubonsie (4-1) is in fine shape converting opponents’ mistakes into points, at least the last two weeks against struggling offenses. Against Metea and Lake Park, the Warriors have recovered 9 fumbles and intercepted 2 passes. All led to points, twice directly with sophomore linebacker Hugh Griffin returning fumbles for touchdowns in both games.

“We just pursued to (the ball), tried to make sure that last week wasn’t a fluke, and we come out and play hard-nosed defense,” said lineman Zac Steele, who blocked a punt and recovered a fumble against Metea.