Fresh off a 48-0 win against Schaumburg, Naperville Central hosts Fremd in the second round of the IHSA 8A Football playoffs. With a win, the Redhawks would secure their first quarterfinal appearance since 2017. The Vikings are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2019 but haven’t won a second-round game since 2009. This highlight is sponsored by BMO.
Naperville Central opens the IHSA Second Round matchup with a 14-0 lead against Fremd
The Redhawks resume their game plan from last week. Sebastian Hayes drops back and finds an open DeShaun Williams, who moves the chain for a 14-yard play.
The drive caps off with Aiden Clark running to the outside and into the endzone for a Redhawk touchdown. The first score of the game puts Central up 7-0.
Clark continues to shine like he has all season. He runs for a big 15-yard pickup.
The Hawks are back in the red zone. DeShaun Williams breaks free and receives the touchdown pass from Sebastian Hayes. It’s 14-0 Redhawks.
The Redhawk defense forces two turnovers and the offense adds points to close the half
In the second quarter, the Vikings are marching as quarterback Johnny O’Brien rolls out looking for a target, but Nick Zbylut intercepts the pass, and the Hawks’ defense keeps the goose egg on the board.
The turnover fuels Hayes, who gets away from trouble before throwing a dart to DeShaun Williams, which gets the red and white past midfield.
Hayes and the Hawks keep going. The Redhawk quarterback passes to Garrett Nichols for the touchdown, giving the home team a 21-0 lead.
The Vikings are hoping for any score before the half, but O’Brien gets stripped by Troy Kashul, and Jake Stanish falls on it for the turnover. Gavin Ellison adds on a field goal to give Central a 24-0 lead at the half.
Northwestern commit Johnny O’Brien gets the Viking ship back on course
In the second half, O’Brien and his squad are fighting to keep their season alive. The future Wildcat unloads a beautiful rainbow downfield to an open Marquan Brewster. He catches it in the back of the endzone for the Viking’s first touchdown. Fremd makes the two-point conversion, putting the score at 24-8.
On the next Hawks drive, they draw up the end around with Jermaine Kenady, who picks up the first down but coughs the ball up. Jason Hardy recovers the fumble for Fremd.
The Vikings look for points but Gavin Wade looks for the football and picks it off! Wade sees nothing but Green grass in front of him and he houses it for the pick-six and a 31-8 lead for Central!
Fremd answers right back with O’Brien throwing a bomb to receiver Brennan Saxe who makes an unbelievable catch for the touchdown. The Vikings trail 31-14 after the explosive 45-yard play.
Does Hayes have an answer? He looks for Williams again but finds Viking, Amann Parikh, who secures the interception. Just like that, Fremd has made this one a ball game.
Back comes O’Brien, who continues to unleash. He finds Brewster wide-open for six. Fremd is now trailing 31-21.
Naperville Central escapes Fremd and moves on to the IHSA football quarterfinals
In the fourth quarter, the Hawks just want to milk the clock, and Clark uses his feet, as always, to get a first down.
They are sniffing the endzone to put it away, but Clark fumbles the ball, and Joe Gump comes up with the pigskin for Fremd.
As for O’Brien, the Viking passes for 417 yards on the night, and he throws for 15 of them here to Brewster. Brewster scores here to make it three touchdowns along with 143 yards in the game. O’Brien surpasses the single-season 3,000-yard passing mark. It is a 31-28 game with over two minutes left.
Late in the game, the Hawks need a big play, and they get it from Hayes, who finds an open Aaron Nussbaum for the first down, and that’s it. Naperville Central is moving on to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2017 and will take on Lyons Township in the next round.
For more prep sports highlights, visit the Naperville Sports Weekly page!
