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Waubonsie Valley pulls away from South Elgin

Waubonsie Valley is headed into the playoffs on a big high.

The 8-1 Warriors followed up last week's thrilling win over rival Neuqua Valley with a 59-point outburst while knocking off visiting South Elgin 59-29 Friday night in Aurora. Warriors quarterback Zach Bennema had 5 touchdowns as the Warriors captured their third Upstate Eight Conference crown during coach Paul Murphy's reign at the school.

But the visiting Storm - which at 5-4 hopes to receive a playoff berth of its own Saturday - flashed some firepower of its own in the first half. After the Warriors led 21-7 after one quarter, South Elgin kept battling back before trailing 35-21 at the half.

"What was the score, 59-29?" asked Bennema, who rushed for a pair of scores and also threw 3 touchdowns. "It kinda seems like a blowout but that was a dogfight. It felt like we were in triple overtime and it was tied 55-55. It was an all-out war."

But after that wild back-and-forth first half, the Warriors took control in the second half, moving ahead 59-21 on a 5-yard TD run by Bennema with 8:44 left to play.

"We did a great job turning it up in the second half and running away with it," said Bennema, whose team awaits Saturday's pairings to learn of their first-round playoff matchup. "We made the plays that we needed to make and we had Max Ihry on a kickoff return that was huge."

While Justin Rich was hauling in scoring passes of 35 and 29 yards and Keaton Casey had a 30-yard TD catch from Bennema, the Warriors also picked up that kickoff return for a score from Ihry, who grabbed a short kick and turned it into a 76-yard score that made it 28-14 Warriors early in the second quarter.

"I just went up the middle expecting to get maybe 20 yards," said Ihry, who scored one touchdown earlier this year while playing running back. "I saw it open up to the left and I was like, 'Might as well house this.' Of course Griffin Becker gave me a great block at the end, so I just brought it in."

The Storm struggled to slow the Warriors attack and was also slowed by flags, with 13 penalties costing it 120 yards on the night.

But quarterback Hayden Nelson still passed for 287 yards, including a 60-yarder to Derek Kumerow on a flea flicker that tied the score at 7-7 in the first quarter. Shawn Griffin added a pair of touchdown runs for an offense that had 20 first downs but just couldn't match Waubonsie Valley score for score.

"They're a great football team," South Elgin coach Paul Pistorio said. "Untimely penalties really got us off schedule. It was difficult with some of the down and distances … we tried to maintain balance but when you set yourself up with those first-down penalties you put yourself in a big time bind."

Even so the offense did some nice things.

"We're capable of putting up the numbers. It's just a matter of converting down in the red zone, and we've got to do a better job of keeping the defense off the field."

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