Two Naperville area teams are remaining in round two of IHSA high school football playoffs and the latest edition of Football Friday. Naperville North fell in a high-scoring thriller against Maine South last week while Waubonsie Valley was taken out by Oswego. That leaves Benet Academy in the 5A bracket and Naperville Central still alive in 8A. Let’s get to the highlights. Football Friday round two is sponsored by BMO.
Fremd vs. Naperville Central
A battle between a pair of 9-1 teams as Naperville Central hosts Fremd for a Friday night showdown. The seventh seeded Redhawks throttled Schaumburg in the opening round while the Vikings defeated Andrew.
In the first quarter Aiden Clark takes the handoff and runs to the open space along the right side and waltzes into the end zone to put the Redhawks up 7-0.
Near the end of the first, the Redhawks are knocking on the door again when Sebi Hayes finds DeShaun Williams in the corner of the end zone for the touchdown. Naperville Central explodes to a 24-0 lead at halftime.
After a Fremd touchdown makes it a 24-8 game, the Vikings look to draw closer but Gavin Wade jumps the route and takes the interception the other way for a pick six. The Redhawks go up 31-8 and can taste the quarterfinals.
Fremd quarterback Johnny O’Brien says not so fast. He throws a deep ball to Brennan Saxe who makes an incredible one handed catch in the end zone for a 45-yard touchdown to make it 31-14.
With less than five minutes to go in the game and the Vikings trailing 31-21, O’Brien finds Marquan Brewster for his third touchdown of the game. A school record 464 yards for O’Brien as Fremd trails 31-28.
Naperville Central needs a play to ice the game. Hayes rolls out and finds Aaron Nussbaum over the middle. The first game back for the senior in over a month due to a knee injury. The catch and run helps the Redhawks hold on for the victory over Fremd. Naperville Central is moving on to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2017 back when players like Jayden Reed, Payton Thorne and Joe Kennedy were leading the Hawks.
Benet Academy vs. Rochelle
Benet Academy is fresh off its first playoff victory since 2017 and ready to hit the road heading west to Rochelle. The Hubs are a number two seed in the 5A bracket and easily handled Marmion Academy in round one.
The Hubs use a lot of misdirection with their running game and get on the board early on a goal line pitch to Grant Gensler who takes it into the end zone. Rochelle goes for two and gets it to go up 8-0.
Later in the first quarter, another option look as Dylan Manning gets the ball and breaks several tackles on his way to the goal line. The Rochelle offense clicking early to go up 16-0.
Trailing 24-0 at halftime, the Redwings need to get going to get back in the game down three scores. They use some razzle dazzle as Ryan Kubacki avoids the sack after a pair of reverses and throws to Declan Walsh who plucks the touchdown reception over the defender as Benet trails 24-6.
Later in the quarter, Rochelle back on offense. Gensler gets the handoff on the end around and follows his blockers down the right sidelines, winning the race to the end zone. The Hubs running attack helps them take down Benet Academy 38-6. The Redwings end the season with a 7-4 record. Rochelle advances to the quarterfinals to set up an exciting home matchup against defending 5A champion Nazareth Academy next Saturday.
Quarterfinals Schedule
Naperville Central is moving on to the quarterfinals to face Lyons Township although the official date and time are still to be determined, but Central will be on the road. If the Redhawks are able to get past the Lions, they would face the winner of York and Warren in the 8A semifinals.
With only Naperville Central remaining, that means that this season of Football Friday has come to an end at round two. Of course you can still find the full highlight of that Redhawk matchup against Lyons on nctv17.org once the game is completed and any other football highlights that may follow. Thank you so much to all of you who have enjoyed our weekly journey through the high school football landscape. We are grateful to all of you, our local teams, our terrific team of reporters covering the games and our sponsor, BMO. So for the final time in 2024, this has been Football Friday, I’m Justin Cornwell. Thanks for watching!
For more prep sports highlights, visit the Naperville Sports Weekly page!
