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Waubonsie Valley rallies in support of Eddy

After an emotion-filled week Waubonsie Valley rallied around its senior captain Friday night.

Quarterback Jack Eddy helped lead the Warriors to a 47-6 Upstate Eight victory over Bartlett, one week after his mother, Laura Ann Eddy, lost her battle with cancer at age 48.

Eddy threw a touchdown pass and ran for another against the Hawks, playing inspired football behind a group of supportive teammates.”

“We’re a family,” Eddy said of the Warriors. “We’ve been stressing that all year. I’ve got my second family right here, and I’ve got my family backing me up over by the fence. It’s been good. I really appreciate the (support).”

Coach Paul Murphy was proud of the support his players offered, as well as their play on Friday.

“Every one of our varsity kids was at the funeral yesterday morning,” he said. “We’ve been supporting him all week. His mom’s last wish was for him to play. I just told him that you don’t have to win the game yourself. You’ve got other teammates out there. Let’s make sure you let your teammates do their job, and they did.”

In just the fourth play from scrimmage, Waubonsie Valley (4-1, 2-0) made it a quick 7-0 game when Eddy dropped back on a play-action pass and found Christian Gibbs, who had beaten his defender deep and caught the perfectly thrown pass from 43 yard out.

“We had talked about during the week, if (Bartlett) gave us the opportunity to go deep, we were going to go deep,” Murphy said. “I knew they had our tape against Naperville Central, so I figured they’d try something. They saw us go in motion, the safety came running over to help on the option side and that’s when we went post on the back side. It got us off to a great start.”

The Waubonsie Valley defense provided the next spark when late in the first quarter, Bartlett (1-4, 1-2) quarterback Jordan Flint rolled right and threw a pass that Brock Westwood picked off at the Waubonsie 43-yard line.

Two plays later, Eddy ran right on the option and pitched the ball to Tony Durns, who scampered 52 yards into the end zone and 14-0 lead.

Jon Fizer was next up for the Warriors, picking up 56 of the 62 yards on a 4-play scoring drive, culminating in a 24-yard touchdown run.

Fizer also had a 2-yard scoring run, followed by Eddy’s 1-yard touchdown run that gave the Warriors a 35-0 lead at halftime.

“We have a lot of options and a great offensive line,” Eddy said. “Whatever defense is thrown at us, we’ve got an answer for it.”

Waubonsie Valley held the Bartlett defense to just 37 total yards and 2 first downs in the first half.

“I think our defense was outstanding,” Murphy said. “It was about getting (Bartlett) wrapped up with multiple defenders and trying to keep them from breaking loose and I thought we did that.”

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