Naperville Central picks up a crosstown triumph
A week after returning 3 interceptions for touchdowns in a victory over Glenbard North, Naperville Central feasted on turnovers again.
The Redhawks forced 6 by Naperville North, including 4 more picks, in a 27-6 crosstown and DuPage Valley Conference victory at North Central College.
"What they ran we didn't prepare for, but we just had to execute, flow to the ball and we got the job done tonight," said Central defensive end Joe Schweikart. "It all comes down to making plays. If we get our turnovers, we can make it happen."
Schweikart was in the middle of the defensive action for Central (5-1, 2-0) all night as he recorded 3 sacks of Huskies quarterback Evan Kujawski, with one forcing a fumble that was recovered by Redhawks linebacker Daniel Delgrosso in the end zone for a 24-0 Central lead midway through the third quarter. Schweikart also tipped a Kujawski pass that resulted in one of Garrett Purdy's 3 interceptions.
"I don't know what the state record is for interceptions is, but we've sure got a bunch of them," said Central coach Mike Stine. "Naperville North was trying to get the ball to their playmakers, and they did at times. But we were fortunate enough to take the ball away from them."
North coach Sean Drendel figured the Huskies (2-4, 0-2) would have a hard time with Central's run defense (the Huskies had -8 yards rushing on 11 attempts). So his game plan called for Kujawski to sling the ball around. The senior did throw for 185 yards, but North couldn't put together enough offensive consistency to keep pace with the Redhawks. Naperville Central led 10-0 at halftime on Connor Assalley's 24-yard field goal and a 1-yard by Kevin Clifford, who finished with 249 yards rushing on 32 carries.
"At halftime, we actually felt pretty good, the offense was moving it, we were doing some good things," said Drendel. "We thought if we get a stop to start the second half we were really in it, then the punt hits our guy and they score - and good teams find ways to take advantage of those breaks."
Indeed, after Central recovered the muffed punt at the North 31, six plays were needed to score with quarterback Conor Joyce sneaking in from the 1. When North's next possession ended just 43 seconds later with Schweikart's TD-producing strip-sack, suddenly the game was essentially over. North did avoid the shutout with Chris Gajcak's 5-yard option pass to Matt Herring late in the third quarter before Assalley closed the scoring with a 33-yard field goal with less than six minutes left.
"I told our guys that you have to battle adversity in life, we're in that spot and we're just gonna have to get out of it," said Drendel. "Our playoffs start next week."