Naperville Central clicks on all cylinders to give Batavia first loss of season

BATAVIA –The Batavia football team knew coming into Friday night’s matchup with Naperville Central that mistakes needed to remain at a minimum.

Playing the best defense they had seen all season, the Bulldogs could ill-afford the turnovers they committed, falling to Naperville Central, 34-14.

Nothing about Friday night’s game was typical for Batavia this season. Quarterback Kyle Niemiec threw an early interception and, as they did all night, the Redhawks (5-1) took advantage.

Manny Rugamba, the Iowa-bound wide receiver, scored three touchdowns, two of which came in the first quarter to give Naperville Central a two-score lead.

“As hard as we worked and prepared for this game, I think we came out a little starry-eyed tonight, for whatever reason,” Batavia coach Dennis Piron said. “Bottom line is we can’t have turnovers like that. We have done a good job this season of limiting mistakes and against a football team like that, you just cannot have that happen.”

“They were a little more aggressive than we have seen, and we didn’t respond well tonight. ... It’s disappointing,” Piron added.

For a moment, it looked like the Bulldogs (5-1) were going to get back in the game. Trailing, 14-7, in the second quarter, defensive end Derek Nutley sacked Redhawks quarterback Conor Joyce on fourth down.

The ensuing play was designed to perfection, but the pitch from Niemiec to running back Zach Garrett, who scored both Batavia touchdowns to bring his season total to 10, misfired.

The Redhawks, who play in the DuPage Valley Conference, recovered and drove down the field to once again find Rugamba for his third score. The speedy receiver finished with six catches for 119 yards. Redhawks senior Matt Lehmann added six catches of his own for 130 yards.

“Manny’s pretty good, isn’t he?” Naperville Central coach Mike Stine said. “You have to choose in this game. If you take away the run, you leave guys like Manny in single coverage and he’s a very good player. We dissected their offense. They put a lot of pressure on you, and our defense was able to make some big plays for us.”

Niemiec, who has found his go-to weapon Canaan Coffey this season with ease, was kept in control. He completed 18 of 27 passes for 156 yards and did not throw a touchdown pass. His first-drive interception was by, you guessed it, Rugamba.

Joyce, on the other hand, found Rugamba three times, and each of his running backs found the end zone in Jeremiah Wiggins and Luke Brady. The Redhawks offense combined for 433 yards, but the defense, which has now allowed just over 10 points per game in five contests, was stingy as advertised.

“They did a real good job just reading every formation we threw at them,” said Coffey, who caught nine passes for 81 yards in the loss. “They flew around and really just made it tough to get in a rhythm. When we started moving the ball, it seemed like a penalty or turnover stopped our momentum.”

As hard as it was to walk off its home field with the loss, Batavia knows it can learn from this. This is a feeling that none of the Bulldogs want to feel again, because now that they have, they know it can’t happen again.

“You never want to lose, but now we have that feeling in our gut,” Niemiec said. “Sure, we are disappointed, but we can definitely get better from this.”

“I wish we could get back out there and play right now,” Coffey said. “This feeling hurts right now and I really just can’t wait to get back out there and battle with my brothers the rest of the season.”

Assuming Batavia handles winless Elgin next week, it will travel to face potentially unbeaten Geneva in what looks to be the Upstate Eight Conference River Division championship game in Week 8. Both the Vikings and Batavia are unbeaten in UEC River play.

NAPERVILLE CENTRAL 34, BATAVIA 14

Naperville Central    14    0    7    13    –    34

Batavia        0    7    0    7    –    14

HOW THEY SCORED

First quarter NC – Rugamba 44 pass from Joyce, (Assalley kick), 9:06.

NC – Rugamba 42 pass from Joyce (Assalley kick), 2.8.

Second quarter

BAT – Garrett 4 run (Carlson kick), 7:33.

Third quarter

NC – Rugamba 12 pass from Joyce (Assalley kick), 6:07.

Fourth quarter

NC – Wiggins 12 run (Assalley kick), 10:53

BAT – Garrett 5 run (Carlson kick), 6:47.

NC – Brady 3 run (kick failed), 1:31.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – Naperville Central: Brady 13-54, Joyce 12-50, Lehmann 3-37, Wiggins 10-24, Patrick 2-minus-4. TOTALS: 40-163. Batavia: Garrett 18-70, Niemiec 9-10, Anderson 1-5, Thomas 1-5. TOTALS: 29-90.

PASSING – Naperville Central: Joyce 13-19-0-270, Patrick 0-1-0-0. Batavia: Niemiec 18-27-1-156.

RECEIVING – Naperville Central: Lehmann 6-130, Rugmaba 6-119, Piper 1-21. Batavia: Coffey 9-81, Stokke 5-57, Bowman 1-7, Albanese 1-5, Stuttle 1-4, Anderson 1-2 .

TOTAL YARDS – Naperville Central 433, Batavia 246.

Sophomore score: Naperville Central 13, Batavia 6.