For Naperville Central, this is about perception versus reality on two fronts - what its DuPage Valley Conference schedule looks like on paper, and how its spread offense controls the ball.
After traveling to West Aurora on Friday, the Redhawks will face Wheaton North, Wheaton Warrenville South and Naperville North across three brutal weeks. Those programs are ranked 14th, sixth and fifth, respectively, in the latest Chicago Sun-Times poll.
West Aurora is 0-12 against Central since 1994, but the Redhawks (2-0) say they aren't looking ahead.
"I know those are big games for us but, yeah, we just take it week by week, game by game," Central defensive lineman Clint Woods said before Wednesday's practice. "We focus on nothing else after this week."
Central coach Mike Stine acknowledged that both teams need this game. West Aurora (2-0) has to beat some upper-level DVC teams in order to make the playoffs for the first time since 1994. And the Redhawks need to bank some wins in the DVC, which enters Week 3 with an overall winning percentage of .875 and doesn't offer many guaranteed victories.
"This is like a playoff-atmosphere game," Stine said. "We're talking about West Aurora 100 percent. We haven't even mentioned to our kids who we play next week and most of our kids (probably) don't even know."
This week Stine expects senior running back Nick Kukuc to return after injuring his shoulder in the season opener at Waubonsie Valley. Last season Kukuc rushed for 601 yards and scored 10 touchdowns. In his absence, Central ran the ball 25 times for only 59 yards against Lake Park last week.
But Stine insists that's not the only way you can view Central's offense. Yes, junior quarterback Nick Linne - who's supposed to only be managing the game in his first two varsity starts - has already thrown the ball 55 times. But those screen passes to Riley O'Toole and Antwon Harris essentially function as running plays.
"To us," Stine said, "throwing the ball 30 times is misleading (because) a lot of the passes we throw, we're only throwing the ball two-three yards upfield. It's just an extended handoff.
"If you charted all our passes, we haven't thrown the ball up the field a ton...most of our pass plays (are) 10, 15 yards or less, where our receivers catch the ball."
How Central controls the ball against West Aurora will go a long way toward determining its margin for error through October.
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