Wheaton Academy gets the hang of Thursday night football
The Thursday night football experiment at Wheaton Academy was a huge success - for one team, at least.
"Thursday night football was a blast," said Warriors coach Brad Thornton. "It's a lot of fun and hopefully it starts a new tradition at Wheaton Academy."
He'll take any tradition that includes a 35-7 Metro Suburban Blue victory, this one at the expense of Aurora Central Catholic at Performance Trust Field in West Chicago.
"It was a tough turnaround for us," said Chargers coach Luke Brauweiler, whose staff and players had to make do with one less day of preparation on top of Aurora Central having its homecoming last week.
Wheaton Academy running back Cristian Carstens, out the last three games and nearly all of a fourth after getting banged up against IC Catholic, made a triumphant return with 15 carries for 100 yards and touchdown runs of 8 and 1 yards.
After a scoreless first quarter Warriors receiver Noah Jones got the ball rolling, scoring easily on the first play of the second quarter, grabbing Ben Thorson's pass on a 9-yard slant pattern.
Jones caught 5 passes for 69 yards with 3 touchdowns. His 13-yard touchdown catch, set up by Will Casto's 26-yard catch and run, gave the Warriors a 21-0 halftime lead.
"Our offensive line (Sebastian Pares, Christian Pares, Derek Johanik, Daniel Kowalczyk and Noel Siony) was giving our quarterback some time, which was good," Jones said. "Our coaches just found holes in their defense, so we took advantage of that."
Despite promising starts on the ground by Aurora Central running backs Jeff Albert and Jack Dunn, by halftime Wheaton Academy (4-3, 1-3) had outgained the Chargers 214 yards to 51.
They didn't stop there. On the Warriors' first possession of the third quarter they went up 28-0 at the nine-minute mark on a 34-yard pass from Thorson to Jones. Kicker Jack Ryken added one of his 5 extra points on the night.
On its next two possessions Aurora Central (2-5, 1-3) lost a fumble and threw an interception, to Jones. Carstens capped the Warriors' scoring with his 1-yard run at 4:32 of the third quarter.
Though Aurora Central could see its playoff prospects waning away, the Chargers owned possession from then on. Linebacker Zach Fowler recovered a fumble that led to a 12-play scoring drive, quarterback Jimmy Eul grinding it in from 8 yards out in the last minute. Eul finished with 45 yards rushing.
"We've got a bunch of guys battling," Brauweiler said. "The kids don't have any give up in them, they've been fighting all year."