There are several pressing issues for No. 6 Naperville North as it heads into Friday’s showdown against cross-town rival and top-ranked Naperville Central.
One would think the most glaring issue would be how the Huskies are going to score against a defense that didn’t allow a point in its first six games.
Not quite. Naperville North coach Larry McKeon’s offense hasn’t had any problems moving the ball, or scoring for that matter, this season. Rather, McKeon said, the key for his team is his defense, not Central’s.
“I think we have to play very good defense against a very good offense,” McKeon said. “We’ve been up and down [on defense]. We have potential to have a great defense, but we haven’t shown consistency.
“We’ve shown flashes of being very good and shown flashes of being very bad.”
Indeed, North’s defense has shown glimpses of both good and bad.
The positives are the Huskies have shut out West Chicago while allowing only 14 yards of offense, and they held Wheaton North to only six points and limited Glenbard East to 239 yards of offense. Then again West Chicago and Wheaton North are last-place teams in the DuPage Valley Conference and have both had their shares of offensive struggles.
Against better teams, the Huskies’ defense hasn’t fared as well. While North (7-0, 5-0) has yielded 16 points per game, it has allowed opponents to gain significant yardage in the process. Take the Huskies’ last two games. They gave up 383 yards of offense against Wheaton Warrenville South last week and 373 against Glenbard North, which incidentally gave Central a colossal scare last week. St. Charles East amassed 384 yards against Naperville North in the second week of the season.
In all the Huskies are yielding 286.6 yards per game but that figure raises to 332 if you take away the West Chicago game.
Of course the point is moot because North is averaging 28.7 points while gaining 378 yards per game.
“We’ve always had pretty good luck moving the football,” McKeon said. “We have a fairly explosive offense that can score some points.”
The Huskies’ moderately young defense, however, is a different story. How will it fare against Central’s prolific offense, one that is averaging 38.1 points per game?
Central (7-0, 5-0), which has topped the 40-point plateau three times this season, is powered by running backs Kyle Griffith (632 yards, eight touchdowns) and Matt Yellin (nine touchdowns).
“They have a great running game,” McKeon said. “Ever since I can remember they’ve had great tailbacks.”
McKeon said the strength of his defense is the linebacker corps of seniors Jon Boyajian, Steve Kasperski and junior David Choi. But he also said his defense is young. He starts five juniors and a sophomore, which is why the unit has sometimes been inconsistent.
“We have a lot of young guys,” McKeon said. “We’re getting seasoned as the season goes on.”
