Turnovers key Batavia triumph at WW South

No amount of water was going to quench Batavia's thirst for turnovers.

On the third play from scrimmage, Matt Weerts scored on a 30-yard interception return, and that gave the Bulldogs all the momentum they needed in Saturday's 42-21 DuKane Conference football victory at Wheaton Warrenville South.

But Batavia (4-1, 3-0) wasn't done taking away.

Later in the first quarter Bulldogs defensive lineman Eric Sartain snared a fumble out of the air and nearly rumbled for another touchdown. Two plays later Art Taylor scored for the second time to start a stretch of 28 straight points for Batavia.

"We're always thirsting for the turnovers, we like to say," Weerts said. "We like to try to win with our defense. It gets the team going, the offense gets going after that. It's awesome."

After Taylor's second touchdown - he had a 53-yarder on the Bulldogs' first possession and rushed for 139 yards for the game - WW South (3-2, 1-2) never again came closer than 14 points. Bulldogs junior quarterback Kyle Oroni converted fourth downs for touchdowns on consecutive possessions, throwing passes of 24 and 22 yards to Trey Urwiler as the halftime lead grew to 35-7.

"They beat us in all phases of the game," said Tigers coach Ron Muhitch. "We just didn't get started, and we're not good enough to overcome those kinds of mistakes."

Batavia bottled up WW South's run game most of the night, but Tigers junior quarterback Parker Brown tried to keep his team close. He threw for 267 yards, an interception and 3 touchdowns to Kaleb Clousing including a 78-yarder in the first quarter.

Both teams now enter rivalry week as Batavia faces Geneva and WW South takes on Wheaton North in Week 6.

"For three quarters of football we played pretty doggone good," said Batavia coach Dennis Piron. "We jumped on them and got those scores, which was nice. It's a big rivalry week coming up for us so hopefully we'll be ready."

Twitter: @kevin_schmit