West Aurora Nearly Shocks Tigers

Coming into Friday’s DuPage Valley Conference opener between West Aurora and Wheaton Warrenville South, each team had a distinct storyline.

West Aurora had never beaten the Tigers since joining the DVC in 1998, and haven’t reached the playoffs since 1994. A 2-0 start under first-year coach Nate Eimer has created excitement, however, and a trademark win would go a long way toward giving the program some legitimacy.

Two-time defending Class 7A state champion Wheaton Warrenville South was off to an 0-2 start (albeit to Class 7A favorite Glenbard West and defending Class 8A state champion Maine South, but still an unfamiliar position for the Tigers) and needed somebody to provide a spark.

For a half, neither team seemed interested in advancing their particular storylines in a scoreless 24 minutes.

But after falling behind 6-0 early in the third quarter, Wheaton Warrenville South senior Dan Vitale had seen enough.

The Northwestern-bound tailback scored on runs of 14, 1 and 28 yards on consecutive drives late in the third quarter and early in the fourth to propel the Tigers to their first win of the season, 20-6. Vitale ran for 189 yards on 25 carries in the win.

“I personally said to myself that I needed to make a big play,” Vitale said. “Football is a game of momentum. If you don’t get that going, you’re not going to go anywhere, so once we got that going, you saw the result.”

Early in the third, however, it looked like West Aurora with the team on a roll. It was a minor victory to hold the Tigers scoreless in the first half, and West opened the second half with a huge play.

Junior kicker Bryan Watkins lofted a high, short kickoff to start the third quarter and when Wheaton South was unable to field it, Jonathon Gosong jumped on it at the Tigers’ 18-yard line. Five plays later, Shon Enoch scored from seven yards out and stunned the Wheaton South crowd, giving the Blackhawks a 6-0 lead.

But Wheaton South coach Ron Muhitch, knowing that alternating between senior transfer Thaddeus Armstrong and sophomore Ryan Graham at quarterback wasn’t getting the Tigers into the end zone, pared down his playbook.

“I rode the big dog today,” Muhitch said of Vitale. “I promised the team that we were going to do that. We’re trying to stay within our talent level so far on offense, and it’s so hard for me because I have so many things that I’d like to do to keep a defense honest and I can’t. We’re really one-dimensional right now running with Vitale.”

But playing a short field in the second half, it was enough to get the job done. The average starting field position for Vitale’s three straight scoring drives was the West Aurora 38-yard line, and the Tigers took advantage.

“They dominated the field position,” Eimer said. “We couldn’t get out of a hole. That was the difference. No matter how good your defense is, you can’t keep giving them a short field and expect to make things happen.”

It was business as usual in the end for Wheaton South. But for West Aurora, despite the loss, Eimer hopes this is a sign of things to come.

“This is definitely a step in the right direction,” Eimer said. “We still haven’t beaten these guys, but we’re getting closer. For this program, to take steps forward, we’ve got to beat (Naperville Central next week). We have to get over that hump. It’s going to continue to take great efforts like this.”