Waubonsie Valley burns Oswego with its speed
Speed to burn. Waubonsie Valley has plenty and the Warriors used it to burn Oswego.
The visiting Panthers (0-2) did their best to hang tough in Friday’s nonconference game, but Waubonsie Valley (1-1) flashed its superior speed and delivered way too many big plays while winning 40-21 in Aurora.
With Tony Durns busting off touchdown runs of 37 and 62 yards and quarterback Jack Eddy firing a 76-yard strike to Devin Strickland, the hosts grabbed a 27-7 lead in the second quarter. And after Oswego closed that gap to 27-21 after three quarters, the Warriors responded with three more big plays to seal the victory.
“Our coaches tell us our speed’s our best thing, so that’s what we work a lot on,” said Durns, who capped his big game with 37-yard TD catch that made the score 40-21 with 9 minutes left to play. “We had to get the win tonight.”
On the night the junior speedster had 4 rushes for 107 yards and the one touchdown catch, giving him 144 yards of offense and three scores on just five touches. But equally as important was the quarterback play of Eddy and the stellar two-way play of Christian Gibbs, whose 65-yard TD catch and interception were two of the biggest plays of the fourth quarter and made sure that the Panthers’ rally would come up short.
Oswego scored a late touchdown in the first half on a 24-yard catch by Bryce Holm, then closed the gap to just six following a 4-yard run into the end zone by Tyler Walsh. Looking to pad the lead late in the quarter, the Warriors appeared to add a 40-yard field by Josh Polhill, but it was nullified by a penalty.
Not to worry, however as Eddy hit Gibbs on a 65-yard bomb in the fourth quarter and then Gibbs made a diving pick on the next Panthers possession that set the stage for Eddy’s third TD of the night, which also happened to be Durns’ third score of the game.
Gibbs had seven catches on the night for 109 yards, including a number of clutch first-down conversions, but most of his routes were short ones, that is until the time was right for a deep route in the fourth quarter.
“We saw on film that they were playing way far back,” Gibbs said. “So our coaches wanted us to hit couple short routes, and hit a couple more short routes. But when they weren’t expecting it they said to just go for it.”
Eddy finished the night 10 of 14 for 229 yards and 3 scores. In the fourth quarter with the game on the line, he was 3 of 3 for 109 yards and 2 touchdowns.
“The story tonight for our defense was giving up way too many big plays,” Oswego coach Brian Cooney said.