West Aurora stops Plainfield East

Midway through the first half, West Aurora's band directed a chant of “butterfingers” toward Plainfield East's football team.

And there's no denying that the Bengals had trouble keeping possession of the football in Friday's nonconference game. The visitors lost 2 of 3 fumbles, had an intercepted pass, had a pair of punts blocked and were generally bottled up in a 35-14 loss.

Early in the game, though, West Aurora (1-1) was having some troubles of its own — though despite a nearly-fumbled punt snap, the Blackhawks did not commit a turnover in the game, which was one of the keys to the victory.

“Every week's a big week, so coming out and playing the way we did and getting the win is big,” West Aurora coach Nate Eimer said. “We did a lot of good things tonight. Our kids hung in there. The neat thing for me is that, in my five years here, we've never had a game where all three phases had some moments.”

And that turnover situation worked well as the Blackhawks sought to settle their own offense after some early difficulties.

“That's our thing,” Eimer said. “Last year, we turned the ball over 8 times, and this year, we've turned it over once in two games.”

One week after playing well in a loss to Geneva, the Blackhawks are back to .500 heading into next Friday's Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division opener at Bartlett.

West Aurora quarterback Johnathan Doyle epitomized his team's efficiency. He rushed 10 times for 23 yards and scored two touchdowns, one on a 1-yard plunge and the other on an 8-yard keeper. Doyle only threw 8 passes, but completed 7 of them.

“We just had to wake up,” Doyle said. “We started slow, but then we picked it up and started playing our football the way we practiced all week.”

West Aurora spread around its offense. DaQuon Cross scored a pair of second quarter touchdowns and led the team with 72 rushing yards. But brother DaVion Cross, Jesse Martinez and Drake Spears all made significant contributions to the team's 157-yard rushing total.

“I felt everyone was hustling and doing their job,” Doyle said.

The blocked punts came courtesy of Taylor Zimmerman, who got clean through to DJ Donofrio to nearly smother the ball as it left the Bengals punter's foot.

Plainfield East (0-2) came closest to mounting a comeback in the moments just after Doyle's 1-yard plunge, which put West Aurora ahead 21-0. The Bengals used a long Jeremy Reitz run to set up a 27-yard TD pass from Matt Mazurkiewicz to Jacob Barlev.

Camron Donotlan returned the ensuing kickoff 70 yards, and the Blackhawks re-established a four-touchdown lead on a 2-yard run by Martinez.