West Aurora finishes off Yorkville
It was a long 16 hours for the Yorkville offense.
Resuming their nonconference football season opener at West Aurora Saturday morning, the Foxes had no solutions for the Blackhawks' defensive unit.
Between the first half played Friday night in Aurora and the continuation of the second two quarters, West Aurora had 10 tackles for losses and limited Yorkville to 138 yards of offense on 53 plays from scrimmage.
West Aurora senior wingback DaQuan Cross augmented a Friday night second-quarter touchdown with a pair of 14-yard scoring runs in the fourth.
Cross' twin conversion kicks put the finishing touches on the Blackhawks' 33-3 victory.
Cross, who finished with a game-high 70 yards rushing, also terrorized the Foxes' offense from his outside linebacker position.
Ending the game with the third team sack of Yorkville quarterback Ty Liaromatis, Cross also had 3 pass deflections and an equal number of quarterback hurries off blitzes.
Fellow linebackers Chandler Behrens and Taylor Zimmerman each had a pair of tackles for losses for the Blackhawks.
"We have a really good (defensive) unit," Behrens said. "We always emphasize teamwork. We got off to a quick start (Friday) night."
West Aurora defensive end Steve Norman thwarted the Foxes' initial drive on Friday night with a fumble recovery, which the Blackhawks turned into a lead never to be relinquished.
"They have some tremendous athletes," Yorkville coach Dan McGuire said of West Aurora. "Defensively, they were the ones who put us in the hole."
The second half took all of 50 minutes as West Aurora parlayed two of its three possessions into time-consuming scores.
Miles Tonielli, subbing for West Aurora starting quarterback Jake Jankovsky, directed both fourth-quarter scoring drives that Cross capped with inside traps.
West Aurora amassed 184 yards of offense.
"We had short fields," West Aurora coach Nate Eimer said. "At the end of the day yardage is overrated. It's all about the number of points on the board."
Cade Henry averted the shutout for Yorkville with a 32-yard first-quarter field goal.