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Waubonsie Valley clinches playoff berth

Waubonsie Valley coach Paul Murphy made it a point that his team had to start taking what the opponent was giving it.

Despite outgaining East Aurora 212-48 in first-half total yards, the Warriors failed to convert on three fourth downs and held a slim 14-0 halftime lead.

By the second half, senior quarterback Jack Eddy and the Warriors offense started settling for short passing routes and the receivers did the rest.

Four touchdown passes later, the Warriors’ lead ballooned to 42-0, eventually leading to a 49-0 Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division victory Friday night, clinching a playoff spot in the process.

“Teams are going to try and take away the deep ball, so we’ve got to take what they give us,” Murphy said. “I thought Jack (Eddy) got a little greedy in the first half and I gave him an earful a couple of times. If you get greedy against teams in the playoffs, it’s going to come back to bite you.”

Senior wide receiver Christian Gibbs was the recipient of two of those scores as he led the receiving corps with 5 catches for 102 yards.

“We just needed to finish,” Gibbs said. “We didn’t start out like we should have and it translated onto the field.”

Waubonsie Valley (6-2, 4-1) began putting away the Tomcats (1-7, 1-6) on its opening third-quarter drive, going 69 yards in just 5 plays. Gibbs finished the drive with an out pattern to the flat where he caught Eddy’s pass from 7 yards out and then tiptoed an additional 25 yards down the sideline for a 21-0 lead.

After an interception by Keaton Casey set the Warriors up at the Tomcats’ 42-yard line, Eddy again connected with Gibbs, this time on a deep route that Gibbs caught over his shoulder near the pylon for a 36-yard score and a 28-0 lead.

The next Waubonsie Valley drive started at midfield and it took just three plays to put the Warriors up 35-0 when Eddy found Hugh Griffin 7 yards open in the flat where he ran an additional 20 yards into the end zone.

Eddy again found another one of his receivers in the flat on a short route to Casey, who then wove his way through several East Aurora defenders before finding the end zone in what turned out to be a 47-yard pass play.

The touchdown put Waubonsie Valley up 42-0 with 10 minutes to go in the game and a running clock the rest of the way.

“We had success earlier in the year and teams didn’t understand that we could run by them,” Murphy said. “So now teams know we can run by them and they’re going to play their coverage a lot deeper and we’ve got to continue to hit the stuff underneath.”

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