Waubonsie Valley coach Paul Murphy had high praise Friday night for Connor Yukna.
“Since I’ve been here, 11 years, he’s the best safety we’ve had back there,” Murphy said. “And he’s only a junior.”
With Waubonsie Valley’s front seven initiating consistent pressure, Yukna played clean-up in the secondary. The junior recorded three interceptions on East Aurora’s first seven possessions as the Warriors rolled to a 49-6 victory.
“Those interceptions were just being in the right place at the right time,” said Yukna, who has five interceptions on the season. “With our defensive line putting so much pressure on them, it just worked out with me being in the right place.”
It was a dominant all-around performance for the Warriors (5-2), who surrendered just two first downs before taking a 42-0 lead to start the running clock. East Aurora (1-6) ran 22 plays in the first half, with only 10 going for positive yards.
“We’ve always had a good D-line,” Yukna said. “It causes the quarterback to either run or throw it up and let our DBs bat it down. We’ve always had a good defensive-back game. We haven’t given up many big plays with the defensive line helping us out.”
Waubonsie forced five turnovers. Linebacker Kyle Schroeder added a fumble recovery and defensive lineman Jake Julian chipped in with a stellar strip in the second half.
The Warrior offense wasn’t too shabby, either. Max Ihry ran for 160 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries, and quarterback Jack Connolly added 88 yards and three touchdowns on four rushes.
“(Ihry) pretty much opens up everything for me with the way he’s been playing the last couple weeks,” Connolly said. “The runs he’s had and the numbers he’s put up, everyone thinks he usually has it and nobody is focused on me.”
Connolly had TD runs of 12, 5 and 35 yards. He also had a 10-yard TD pass to sophomore tight end Charles Robinson to give the Warriors a 35-0 lead heading into halftime.
“Our O-line really came out to play,” Connolly said. “We were really stressing to not let them hang around at all and to show we were the better team. The line set the tempo.
Maurice Bryant, a 240-pound fullback, ended the shutout with 63 seconds left on a 10-yard TD run for East Aurora. Bryant rushed for 70 yards on 11 carries, though most of those yards came with the game out of reach.
“We wanted to get to five (wins) to become playoff eligible,” Murphy said. “But we think it’s going to take six for us to get in.”
Josh LeMoine and Eric Gullborg added touchdown runs for Waubonsie.
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Logan Malloy is a freelance writer for The Beacon-News.